“I dream of becoming a doctor. I want to go to the mainland to study. My family consists of just my mother and me. My mother sells dried fish.”
Nguyen Ngoc Huong and Kim Hoang Khang were born on Hon Chuoi, one of Vietnam’s important outpost islands in the southwest. Although they’re in different grades in school, they both attend the special class taught by Lieutenant Colonel Phuc at the Hon Chuoi Border Guard Station.
The class, with 11 students from Grades 1, 3, 4, and 5, takes place in a small room halfway up the mountain, with a blackboard in different corners. Each student sits facing the board that contains his group’s lesson.
Lieutenant Colonel Phuc said: “To run a mixed-grade model requires solid teaching skills. I teach my students basic knowledge so when they move to the mainland, they can keep up with their peers.”
Since he was assigned to Hon Chuoi Border Guard Station in 2010, Phuc has been committed to helping the local children learn to read and write. As he graduated from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City, Phuc has no formal training in education. He taught himself, learning from teachers on the mainland and spending night after night preparing lesson plans. Phuc has also spent years persuading islanders that soldiers like him can help their children get an education and have a better future.
“The children’s sad eyes make me feel I have to do something. Over the years, those sad looks have turned into smiles. It may seem like a small thing but it means everything to me,” said Phuc.
Phuc integrates into his lessons a love for the homeland and a sense of responsibility for the island where the children were born. The class has moved from its early makeshift classroom into a more formal learning space. The children are given clothes, books, and school supplies by the soldiers. The older students help teach the younger ones.
Nguyen Hoang Hao, a 5th grader, said, “In Mr. Phuc’s class, I learned how to read and write. He encouraged me to help teach the younger students. I now teach the alphabet to the first graders, and that makes me very happy.”
His original assignment to Hon Chuoi island was for five years, but Phuc chose to stay. In the past 16 years he has taught 98 children, including 7 who have now graduated from university. Others have completed vocational training and now have stable jobs. His free class has been recognized as an official school in Song Doc commune, Ca Mau province. Thanks to Phuc’s dedication, children like Huong and Khang and their families now believe their dreams are within reach.
“My daughter studied here before going to the mainland to learn a trade. My younger son is studying here now. When the children are old enough, we’ll send them to the mainland. The teacher is gentle, humble, and truly devoted,” said local resident Hoang Thach Giang.
