Pitying naughty children, engineer quits job to teach

Motorcycle repair class at the Center for Social Work - Vocational Education for Youth in Ho Chi Minh City.

“Teacher Quan is very kind, he never scolds us. He always praises us, and when we do not do well, he gently corrects us. We love him very much."

That is the sharing of HVN (13 years old, hometown An Giang) who is living and studying at the Center for Social Work - Vocational Education (CTXH-GDDN) for Youth in Ho Chi Minh City about his teacher - Tran Minh Quan.

Mr. Tran Minh Quan (born in 1980, living in Thu Duc City) is a teacher of the motorbike repair class at the Center. Mr. Quan graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, majoring in Automotive Mechanics. With a Fair degree, Mr. Quan easily applied to a large company as an engineer with a job related to machinery and mechanics.

However, after 3 years of working, when he heard that the Center was lacking vocational teachers, the engineer decided to apply.

Mr. Tran Minh Quan has more than 13 years of working experience at the Center for Social Work - Vocational Education for Youth in Ho Chi Minh City.

Mr. Quan said: " By chance, a friend introduced me to the Center, so I decided to try my hand at a new environment. In 2010, I decided to enter the motorcycle repair vocational school here."

According to Mr. Quan, for students to be able to graduate and find a job, the training period is from 2 to 3 years. The reason the training period is so long is because most of the students have not received any cultural education, so their knowledge absorption is a bit slow.

The children here are between 8 and 16 years old, each with different circumstances, but most of them are orphans, run away from home, or are being taken in by the herders, so they are brought to the Center for education and care. When they arrive at the Center, they are assisted in finding their families. If the family intends to take them back, they will be returned home early, before the age of 16.

However, that is also the reason why some students have only studied for a few months and have not yet mastered the profession. When their families take them home, they have no job and continue to return to their old ways, wandering around...

Teacher Quan teaches his students about the operating models of motorbikes.

“ I was afraid that no one would hire me after leaving the Center, so every time I came home from work and saw a car repair shop posting a recruitment sign, I pretended to apply to see if I could find a job. When asked, I always stammered and said I only knew how to do basic car repairs and was not yet skilled. The owners of the car repair shops added that if they knew how to wash cars, they would hire them to work and train them,” said Mr. Quan.

Realizing that, Mr. Quan began to learn online about the steps and tools needed to wash a car. Every day, after work, Mr. Quan drove his car to different shops to wash it, then observed and learned from experience. After washing it many times, his car was often very clean, so he continued to borrow cars from teachers at the Center to take to other shops to wash it.

After 3 months of continuous car washing, Mr. Quan made a lesson plan and sent a proposal to the center's Board of Directors to ask for permission to open another car washing class and was approved.

During every break, Mr. Quan takes out the letters students send to read.

Since the car washing class started, the students here have been very excited. To support them, the teachers at the Center regularly bring cars for students to practice. Each time they wash, the teachers will reward the students with cakes, candies or a small gift that they like.

Teacher Quan shared that the Center is like his second home and the 54 students here are all considered by him as his children and grandchildren.

Although Mr. Quan is not a homeroom teacher, in 2016 when he joined the Department of Communication and Vocational Education, he had more opportunities to interact with the students. From there, he also grasped the personality, thoughts and feelings of each student.

Some students teachers have to speak gently to, but many students have to be very strict. However, there are also many students who are stubborn and do not listen to their teachers, which makes Mr. Quan once intend to change jobs. However, with the heart of a teacher, it is also the students here that keep him here.

According to Mr. Quan, after returning home, the Center will introduce students to stable jobs. Some students still regularly contact him.

Some students continue their studies in college and university.

“For me, you don’t need to do anything extraordinary. I just hope that when you grow up, you will have a stable career to support yourself, and when you get married, you will be able to take care of your family. That will make me very happy,” Mr. Quan shared.

Talking about Mr. Quan, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong, Head of the Department of Communication and Vocational Education, said that she was very impressed by a teacher who was very kind, dedicated, and gentle with the students.

“In addition to teaching, he is also very active in the Center’s activities, especially monitoring the students’ psychology so that he can intervene and give timely instructions. I have never seen Mr. Quan complain about his work,” said Ms. Phuong.

Teacher Quan guides students to wash the car.

According to Ms. Phuong, Mr. Quan is passionate about his job. He always tries to find ways to help students absorb knowledge in the easiest and fastest way.

“In a special environment like this, we highly appreciate the silent contributions of teachers. On Vietnamese Teachers' Day, the small things that teachers receive are cards written by the students themselves. As long as the students listen, grow up every day and can return to society, become a useful person for society, that is a precious thing for all the staff, employees and teachers here,” Ms. Phuong said emotionally.

Lam Ngoc

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