To help people in the stationed area read and write and raise awareness, Thanh Border Post has coordinated with the Women's Union organizations and schools in Thanh, Xy, and Lia border communes to open many literacy classes since 2023. Students are mainly Pa Co ethnic women aged from 20 to 50 who have never gone to school due to hard living conditions and backward customs and practices.
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A literacy class opened by Thanh Border Post at A Xing Primary and Secondary School in Lia commune, Huong Hoa district, Quang Tri province in October 2024 |
So far, the classes with officers from Thanh Border Post as teachers in the three communes have had nearly 100 students.
According to Major Nguyen Van Chinh, Political Commissar of Thanh Border Post, many people were hesitant and unconfident to join the class at first. They were afraid to hold a pen, afraid that they would not be able to follow the lessons. However, with the patience and dedication of the border guard officers and teachers of the schools, they were gradually confident and determined to study.
For illiterate women, who were previously only familiar with farming, they have become more confident in communication, knowing how to read and write, gradually improving their social awareness after the class. Attentively, some students good at reading and writing have worked as workers in the South, sending money back to their families.
During class, border guard officers also provide students with the traditions of the nation and locality, and practical legal knowledge, helping heighten their responsibility to the community.
Aged over 40, Ho Thi Bay in A Ho village, Thanh commune is keen on studying. After field work and housework, she spends time going to class. “Thanks to the teachers and officers from Thanh Border Post, we have learned how to read and write. I will study hard. Knowing how to read and write will give us the opportunity to acquire more knowledge to help our family develop economy, and set an example for our children and grandchildren to follow.”
Major Nguyen Van Chinh said they were moved when seeing women in their 40s and 50s holding a pen and writing their first letters, then their full names on pieces of paper. Although the handwriting was scribbled, it contained effort and the dream of a better life. That motivated them to continue to persevere with this work.
Apart from the literacy class model, Thanh Border Post has effectively carried out many educational support programs, such as “Paving the way to school for children,” “Adopted children of border posts.”
In a conversation, Colonel Ho Phu Vinh, Deputy Political Commissar of the Quang Tri provincial Border Guard Command, said, “Education is the most sustainable way to change the life of people in border areas. When people are literate and knowledgeable, they will be more confident and make more efforts in economic development and homeland building. Therefore, over the past five years, the command has opened nine literacy classes for nearly 300 students; mobilized nearly 700 drop-out students to return to school.”
Such literacy classes, jointly organized by Thanh Border Post and local authorities and schools, in Huong Hoa border district not only contribute to improving the life of the Pa Co people but also spread the spirit of keenness to learn and the will to rise up in the whole community. This is also the way the local border guard forces build a people's heart disposition, contributing to firmly protecting national border sovereignty.
Translated by Chung Anh