Teacher Nay Khon in the classroom that was re-decorated by him and his students. (Photo: VNA) Born in a poor village, Nay Khon – a Jrai ethnic man of Chu Gu commune in KrongPa District overcame difficulties trying to study with a desire to return toteach the ethnic children in his hometown.
Understanding the difficulties of the ethnic students, since graduating fromschool to teaching until now, Khon has helped many poor students pursue theirstudies.
In 1995, Khon graduated from a three-year training course of pedagogy at GiaLai Pedagogy College and then was assigned to work at a number of elementaryschools in difficult areas of Krong Pa district.
In the 2022-23 school year, he was transferred to teach at a school in the IaJip ethnic hamlet, 24km from the centre of Krong Pa district.
Since the school was built in 2002, the classrooms had degraded.
Responding to the movement of building green, clean, beautiful and safeclassrooms launched by the school’s principal, Khon determined to re-design theclassrooms with his students.
The moldy, dirty walls were cleverly covered by wallpaper. The teacher alsoencouraged students to bring branches of wild orchids, flowers and plants todecorate and create natural corners in the classrooms and the school'sbalconies.
In the dry season, he also instructs students to bring water bottles from hometo take care of the plants.
Thanks to the perseverance of the teacher and students, anyone who visits theschool is surprised and admires Khon and his students’ efforts to build agreen, clean, beautiful and safe school.
In addition, in an effort to maintain the number of students in class, Khonoften goes to remote hamlets to persuade parents to send their children toschool regularly.
Understanding the difficulties of his students who have to help their parentsearn more income and put studying on hold, the teacher braved the sun and therain, wading through the forest to find and mobilise students to come to classregularly.
Ksor H'Met, a student who stayed in the same grade for two years in a rowbecause she often missed school to help her parents work in the fields, saidthat her family struggled with many brothers and sisters. Although her parentswork hard in the field, they could not afford to support their children.
She has to drop out of school to herd goats and earn more money for her family.
Knowing that, Nay Khon deducted his salary and supported H'Met and her sistersin daily life as well as with studying.
Regularly, after the morning class, the teacher cooks lunch at the school’skitchen for H'Met and her sisters and some other poor students so that they canattend classes in the afternoon.
In order to help poor students have enough school supplies, every summer, theteacher asks sponsors to provide school supplies and books for students at IaJip school.
In the school year 2022-23, the teacher received four used bicycles and thenrepaired gave them to his students.
In addition, he also used his own salary to buy three sets of new clothes, twopairs of slippers, two briefcases and school supplies for disadvantagedstudents in his class.
To attract students to read books daily and have a habit of reading books, Khondecorated a corner of the classroom as a library and organised a reading clubin class.
Specifically, he divided the students into reading groups with each group offour to six students. The students helped each other to improve their readingskill. Every Friday, the group leaders reported on their group's performance.
Thanks to the activity, the reading skill and literary of his students improveddramatically, which is highly appreciated by the school’s principal, and isfollowed by other teachers.
Daon Thi Thuy, principal of Tran Quoc Tuan School, said Khon is a dedicatedteacher.
With strong effort and empathy with poor students, he had maintained the numberof students in class for many years, Thuy said.
His students won one second prize and one consolation prize in a contest ofVietnamese language at the school.
Financial supporting poor students helped many students pursue their studies.
"As a teacher of ethnic groups, teaching at a remote and difficult schoolsite, Khon's deeds are worthy of praise, commendation, and to be spreadthroughout the education sector,” said Thuy./.
VNA
