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| The Olympiad award-winning students were rewarded |
“Picking through rock” to find teachers
Teacher Le Quoc Anh, a physics teacher at Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted shared, "My first few years of teaching were quite difficult. I both taught and improved my skills, especially when students entered the national and international Olympiads.
With the same determination, teacher Truong Thi Doan Trang, Head of the Physics Section, confided, "Being a teacher to foster a team of excellent students is under a lot of pressure, requiring intelligence, good enough materials and foreign language and computer skills to translate foreign documents for teaching. To teach one class period, specialized teachers sometimes have to spend 3-4 days preparing lesson plans. Many specialized reference books go on sale at bookstores, but there are scant specialized books for students in preparation for national and international Olympiads.
Tu Cong Thanh's first prize in math is recalled; the team's teacher was said to "make a good diagnosis”. As for teacher Hoang Phuoc Loi, he joked that he taught students one thing, his students knew five ones. He created a few pieces of software for them to exploit materials, but the students themselves exploited up to a dozen pieces of software to facilitate learning.
Teacher Nguyen Phuoc Huy, Head of the Mathematics Section, added, “We discovered that Thanh still lacked some skills, so he did not apply knowledge to the test correctly or made minor mistakes, wrong numbers... The teacher and student spent many days of hard work together. Thanh was trained in how to do well in exams, and the teacher pointed out the mistakes for him to fix them.
Teachers Nguyen Phuoc Huy and Hoang Phuoc Loi born in 1982 and 1983 are known as teachers with professional seniority. The contingent of Quoc Hoc specialized teachers is divided into 3 groups: 40% of young teachers, 40% of senior teachers, and 20% of "old" teachers.
According to Principal Nguyen Phu Tho, 40% of the school's young teachers take on this role, and we are not too worried because the school's experienced and senior teachers are playing the role of mentors. Aside from improving their qualifications, young teachers must undertake many research topics and participate in seminars to gain experience.
Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted has recruited new graduates with excellent degrees and made a plan to train teachers in the school to meet the needs. To have a good specialized teacher, the school must “find a seam of gold after picking through rock ".
In fact, only a few teachers from high schools came to teach at Quoc Hoc, but they encountered difficulties because they were unfamiliar with the specialized teaching system that requires in-depth teaching and heavier responsibilities. They were afraid of pressure, and despite their seniority, upon entering the professional environment, they had to go through a year of probation, then sat the re-enrollment exam and took the informatics and foreign language tests.
Excellent student selection is a sustainable direction. However, for an excellent new graduate teacher to teach a specialized class, it takes at least 4 years. A good bachelor’s degree is not enough. To deal with this tough nut, Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted is applying the method of recruiting good teachers at the pedagogical school, and then continuing to train them.
Of course, there are policies for those with experience assigned to support new specialized teachers. Besides, the measures are adopted to motivate teachers such as honoring and promptly rewarding teachers whose students join in national or international Olympiads. The school always accompanies this contingent and promptly resolves difficulties and obstacles so they can focus on teaching the team. Thua Thien Hue's education attributes a long string of achievements to the teachers' love for their profession.
Hard to satisfy
The project "Development of Hue Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted in the 2022-2030 period with the vision to 2045 together with several policies for students and teachers of Hue Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted" was approved with satisfactory contents for both students and teachers to feel secure.
In the 2022-2023 school year, the level of bonuses for teachers and scholarships for students increased. It is worth mentioning that there are many breakthrough policies. For example, the lowest level of scholarship for encouraging students to study is 3 times as much as the tuition fee, and the highest is 15 times as much each month. The reward level now increases from 10 million VND to 300 million VND if the first prize in an international Olympiad is won.
The role of the teacher is especially appreciated. The education sector is ready to recruit specialized subject teachers from provinces and cities, whose students won international prizes or national first prizes. They will receive the one-time support of up to 200 million VND/teacher with a long-term teaching commitment to the school. The school has more funding to invite good teachers and leading teachers in the province and the country in order to create the best conditions for students to access top subjects. According to Mr. Tho, with the level of support in the project, Thua Thien Hue's education has received worthy attention and investment.
The school is also allowed to use funding to send teachers to domestic institutes and academies for advanced training or training abroad. In the short run, the school will send teachers to study for a doctorate in training and fostering excellent national and international students. Teachers included in planning will be supported with training funds according to the provincial regulations. Every year, 5-7 teachers from Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted do a Master's.
Some teachers seek scholarships abroad to improve their qualifications when some subjects require teaching in English. Besides, to improve the teaching staff’s quality, the school's future direction is to find qualified teachers from schools to propose their recruitment to the department.
Aside from discovering potential students to foster at Nguyen Tri Phuong Junior High School, Quoc Hoc School for the Gifted aims to select competent students at schools in districts and outside the province. The case of Tu Cong Thanh is an example. Coming from Tan Ninh Commune, Quang Ninh District (Quang Binh), Thanh dreamed of becoming a Quoc Hoc student from a young age and was welcomed. At age 16, Thanh reached Hue alone to study and became valedictorian in mathematics for the 2020-2021 school year.
According to Mr. Nguyen Tan, Director of the Department of Education and Training, an equally important factor in building an advanced, high-quality school is to grasp the policy of education socialization, not waiting for the State budget. That means that spearhead education will mobilize socialized resources to implement the specific policies on curriculum, recruitment methods, and policies for teacher attraction. In reality, the whole school has about 40% of the subjects responsible for nurturing national and international excellent students. Socialization from parents has been carried out for many years because many items were outside the budget, such as supporting travel costs for teachers from other units, who come to teach. Many students in the team are in difficult circumstances, so the school must mobilize other resources to offer optimal conditions for them to study.
Obviously, investment to "give a fresh impetus to" Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted is the right and necessary direction. Quoc Hoc High School must be worthy of the tradition of training many outstanding leaders and famous people of Vietnam. "It is important that students must have potential, and bravery and teachers know how to arouse their interest and creativity," said teacher Le Quoc Anh, a physics teacher at Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted.
Spearhead education in Thua Thien Hue needs aspirations and determination to surmount difficulties to rise high and far.