Apart from her special love and strong sense of responsibility for Co Tu children, teacher Tran Thi Bich Thu from the Hoa Bac Pre-school in Da Nang’s Hoa Vang District has had many ideas to help her pupils speak Kinh language (the common language among Vietnamese in the country ) fluently and clearly understand about the cultural values of the Co Tu ethnic minority group.

Teacher Thu and her pupils in Ta Lang and Gian Bi villages

Mrs Thu was born in a poor Co Tu family in Gian Bi Village in the district’s Hoa Bac Commune. As she was young, she nurtured a dream of becoming a teacher. Due to her very difficult circumstance, she had to put her dream away after finishing her senior high school.

However, strong determination and great endeavour inspired Mrs Thu to continue pursuing her dream by finishing the 2-year Pre-school Education Intermediate course at the Da Nang-based University of Education.

After graduation from this school, the 32-year-old Co Tu woman has worked as a pre-school teacher at the Ta Lang Village. During her teaching work, she has made every effort to find out creative and new teaching methods to make her Co Tu pupils proficient in Kinh language.

In particular, she has been actively involved in translating all lessons from Co Tu to Kinh language, as well as facilitating her pupils to participate in events and festivals at the school and across the locality, in order to help them become more confident in speaking Kinh language.

In addition, the young teacher creates a Co Tu culture-related learning environment in her classroom, including building a miniature Guol house in school.

Since the 2017 - 2018 academic year, she and her pupils have participated in a highland market at the annual Co Tu Cultural Festival in order to facilitate them to understand more the cultural values of Co Tu ethnic minority group. At the market, both teachers and pupils together sell the specialties of the Co Tu people such as ‘com lam’ (rice cooked in bamboo tubes), ‘banh sung trau’ (buffalo horn-shaped cakes), and ‘ech xong khoi’ (smoked frogs).

Thanks to her special love and great efforts for Co Tu pupils, the municipal Department of Education and Training has just asked the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training to present a Certificate of Merit to Mrs Thu in recognition of her dedication to the Co Tu ethnic minority children.