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| Mr. Le Trieu Son, Principal of Gia Hoi High School, being dedicated to his students |
A special class
After the Lunar New Year, Gia Hoi High School reviewed the academic performance of all 12th grade students and made a list of those with poor academic performance and improper conduct for devising a program to broaden their knowledge before the examination. As a result, in March, a special class for the students in preparation for the National High School Graduation Examination was established and monitored by the Principal Le Trieu Son himself.
“Unless these dozens of students take a special revision course, they will surely fail the National High School Graduation Examination because many of them skip classes on a ‘regular’ basis, hence lacking basic knowledge to sit the exam. If you want them to go to school, don’t let them self-deprecate or feel isolated,” said Mr. Son upon establishing the class.
The class, initially consisting of 45 students, was named “Mr. Son Class”. The number of participants then grew up to 61. Many students were not put on the list at the beginning, but they applied to join this class because they were not confident with their knowledge. In the morning, they attended the regular class and took the special class in the afternoon. All of the teachers of this class were experienced, enthusiastic and dedicated ones. The tuition was also very ‘reasonable’, being 450,000 VND per month for six subjects for the whole week. If a student was having financial problems, they could send a private message to the teacher asking for free access to the class.
Mr. Son established two Zalo groups, “Mr. Son’s Class” for the students and Mr. Son's Group” for their parents to exchange information and provide reminders for his students regularly. Before establishing the class, the school had also held a meeting with the parents.
In the first lesson, Mr. Son showed the words “Welcome to Mr. Son’s Class” to the students, then tried to lift up their spirits and win their trust: “I know you are worried because your minds are “empty”, but that’s okay. Last year, I also held the same class, and almost all of your seniors having attended this class passed the National High School Graduation Examination.” He also bought some notebooks for his students with his very own money and said: “This may act as the memory keeping of the time when you were a student in Mr. Son’s Class.”
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| Mr. Son and the male students of “Mr. Son’s Class" |
After the first four weeks, the students started to get in order. A few months later, the class was making rapid progress. At the end of May, when the 2nd mock exam was held, many students of “Mr. Son’s Class” exceeded the safety threshold, and some of them even had higher results than those outside this class. If a student showed improvement, Mr. Son would allow him to leave the class, and bring in a few new ones with poor academic performance from outside the class. By the beginning of June, the class had only 24 students remaining and kept operating until the exam date.
“These students didn’t perform poorly, they just didn’t try to study. When their spirits are lifted up and their knowledge gaps are bridged, they have made rapid progress. Before the exam, I was still worried about four students. Luckily, three of them passed the graduation, and only one student failed because he had hardly attended the class. Upon picking up the students and hearing that they performed well in the exam room after each session, I felt extremely happy. In this special class, there are students with an average score of over 7 points, with the score of 9.5 points for one particular exam,” said Mr. Son.
Closeness and understanding
To mobilize these students to attend the class was not an easy task, and sometimes the principal had to compromise with them. Mr. Son said: “Students don’t take every word that the principal says, and people’s hearts must be won. Therefore, the practice of ‘mass mobilization’ must be done in a subtle approach so that the students will not self-deprecate and come to realize that learning is helpful to them. The first thing is to memorize each student’s name. Every day, I attended 2 classes, asked the students to see, for example, who was Huy or who was Tien, then went behind them and patted each on the shoulder: “You should try hard because there’s not much time left until the exam date. Remember to join my class later. It’s spectacular!”
To create a habit of diligence for the students, Mr. Son sent a text message to the group at 6 am and 1 pm every day to remind the students to go to school. He was always gentle and close: “Upon waking up, remember to hit the ‘like’ button, or else I will feel blue.” Thanks to that, all of the students attended the class. If a student makes an excuse to ask for leave, he will say: “I’m waiting for you to come. Don’t fail me!”.
Mr. Son also asked the administrative department to support in regularly checking the students’ attendance. If a student was absent, a private message or a phone call would be given to ask them to come to class. If the student couldn’t be reached, Mr. Son would even come to their house. He also provided the students with some guides in maths, and sometimes he even invited the whole class to the cafeteria to eat and drink. With the special attention of the principal, every student felt happy and tried their best to study.
In addition to regularly asking the students to see what they needed and what difficulties they were facing in study and life to provide them with help in time, Mr. Son also learned about each student’s situation through the homeroom teacher and their parents. Only by understanding the reasons why students performed poorly school and neglected to study could he come up with a proper solution for each case.
Even for students who were addicted to games, Mr. Son tried to help them overcome the addiction. For those facing financial problems and having to work part-time, he asked for funding from his friends, former students, and sponsors so that they could shift their focus on their studies.
There are many students with particular circumstances in the special class. Since childhood, Tran Dang Nhat Huy had lived with his grandparents. His grandparents did not have much money, so Huy asked his uncle to help him buy a computer in installments. In order to earn enough money to make the monthly payment, after class, Huy had to work part-time at an eatery from afternoon until late at night.
Once, seeing that Huy had not come to school, Mr. Son came to his house and found that he was still asleep. Feeling angry, he shouted at Huy. When Mr. Son learned that it was because Huy had to work late at night, he advised him to quit, and he would lend him 2 million VND per month in return to make the payment. Not feeling assured, Mr. Son even went to the Huy’s workplace to ask the owner not to hire him anymore.
Huy got a high graduation exam result and enrolled in the Faculty of Journalism, University of Sciences, Hue University. Nhat Huy said: “Mr. Son plays a huge role not only in my success, but also in that of the others. Although he is not the person who directly teaches, he is the strongest source of support for me, helping me and my friends solve every problem, ranging from family to school ones.”
Addicted to gaming, Tran Anh Tien was the student with the poorest academic performance in the class. In order to treat his addiction, Mr. Son met with his parents to discuss how to persuade Tien to refrain from playing games, and then all of them reached an agreement. Every day when coming to school, Tien had to give his phone to Mr. Son, and at home, his parents also took his phone away after 9 pm.
At first, Tien felt very uncomfortable, but then he overcame and made great progress. After passing the National High School Graduation Examination, Tien enrolled in the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Sciences, Hue University.
Tien confided: “In the past, I was very lazy, and I almost never sat down to study at home. After joining “Mr. Son’s Class”, I gained a sense of learning with the care and love of the principal and the easy-to-understand teaching method of the teachers. Although Mr. Son is the principal, he comes to class every day to remind us to regularly attend the class. His special attention and great care make us try even harder.”
Ms. Bui Thi Lam, Tien’s mother, excitedly shared: “Our family is very grateful to the school and the teachers, especially Mr. Son. In the past, my son performed poorly at school and was really lazy. This made me worried, but I could not find out any solution. Thanks to the attention of the principal, my child gained a sense of learning and was finally able to pass the graduation exam.”
Mr. Son was extremely happy on the day when he heard about his students’ results at the National High School Graduation Examination. In addition to the “gift” of his students’ passing the exam, the students’ acknowledgements: “Thank you so much for accompanying us during the past time. We love you forever!” made the teacher’s heart leap with joy!