The class was organized by Defense-Economic Unit 5 with voluntary teachers from the unit.

Students are the elderly women and men who only know the cultivation but forget the words. They tried hard to write, then spelled each word like children learning by their heart.

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Troops of Defense-Economic Unit 5 in a literacy class 

Each night, the teachers, who are the unit’s personnel and young intellectuals, follow Lieutenant Colonel La Minh Thanh, Political Chief of Defense-Economic Unit 5, to cross high slopes to reach the class.

According to Mrs. Hoang Thi Hoan, one of the teachers, the students often come after dinner time. The class sometimes begins at 8:00 p.m. and finishes at midnight, but all teachers are always persistent in their work, she added.

Some students are unlettered people and some forgot the letters because of not using them for a long time.

Mrs. Ha Thi Hoa, a native in Qua village, talked to us, “We must go to the class. If we do not go, we have to ask the others for help when calculating prices at the markets. We also feel embarrassed because we do not know how to write our names on real estate ownership papers.

Lieutenant Colonel La Minh Thanh said that local people may not immediately see the effects, but they are certainly aware that learning how to read and write will bring “the light” to their families and villages. Nearly 100 over-aged students of the re-illiteracy eradication class in Quang Chieu commune this time have learned to read and write, considering it as a goal to improve their lives.

Translated by Trung Thanh