Vũ Hồng Thắm guides children at Hạ Long Kindergarten dancing and singing. — VNA/VNS Photo

QUẢNG NINH — Vũ Hồng Thắm, 35, decided to become a kindergarten teacher after graduating from college because she wanted to contribute to pre-school education in Vân Đồn Island District, northern Quảng Ninh Province.

In 1991 when she was five years old, Thắm moved with her family from her hometown of northern Thái Bình Province to re-settle in Vân Đồn under a Government policy to encourage people to re-settle in new living zones to redistribute the population in the country by shifting a large number of population from deltas and cities to mountainous, border and island regions.

She said all three of her sisters always encouraged each other to study hard to have a stable career in the future to help their parents, and Thắm did well in high school.

From a young age, she was gifted at singing, dancing, painting, and storytelling. Many friends told her she was suited for teaching and she agreed, so she decided to study at Quảng Ninh Province College of Teachers’ Training in 2004.

During her period at the college, Thắm was an active student and won high prizes in competitions such as storytelling, painting, camping and Mid-Autumn Festival acting.

Thắm always left a good impression on her teachers and friends, an old friend at the college said.

In 2007, she graduated and immediately applied to work as an apprentice at a Hạ Long City kindergarten.

After that, she was assigned by the city Education and Training Department to teach at Thắng Lợi Kindergarten in a poor island commune.

“The first day I went to Thắng Lợi Kindergarten, I taught the four-year-old children’s class, with only five boys,” she said.

“These boys had torn clothes and no sandals, and the first thing I did was fund a towel to clean their face, then they sat around me and sang.”

For teachers in Vân Đồn Island District, moving to the island commune under the teacher rotation policy of the provincial education sector, was a valuable experience for their career.

Each teacher experienced three to five years teaching in the island communes, teaching the educators to share and shoulder the hardships of local people.

For young teachers, working on the island brought experiences to help them mature in their career, Thắm said.

She returned to work in a Hạ Long City kindergarten in 2009 and was valued as an excellent teacher.

She received many prizes and medals such as the province-level good teacher title. For her educational project 'Building a child-centred kindergarten in the 2016-20 period', she was named a province-level excellent labourer.

“Thắm is a dynamic and professional teacher. She is always trusted and loved by children and their parents,” said Nguyễn Thị Loan, Principal of Hạ Long Kindergarten. — VNS