VietNamNet Bridge – The special class has existed for seven years. The students of the special class are the children in the same hamlet, while the teachers are two disabled youths.

Teacher Tran Hoai Phu and his students

When reporters came, they heard students’ voice: “Teacher, how do we solve the mathematics question?”, “Teacher, show me how to spell this word”.

Tuyet, the mother of Phu and Phi, told reporters: “We have some new students; therefore, the class seems to be narrow. We will have to make some more tables.”

The reporters came to Phu’s and Phi’s classes twice, and they saw new students each time.

Bui Thi Anh Suong, a 7^th class student and also a student of the special class, related that she lives with parents in the neighbouring hamlet. She was told by her parents to learn with uncles Phu and Phi because they are very good in teaching. “I can ask the uncles to repeat the lessons I learn at school but I have still don’t understand,” she said.

When asked why Phu and Phi opened the special class, the two said happily: “We found a lot of children from poor families in the hamlet who could not go to school. We asked the children’s parents to allow us to teach them, free of charge. It took us a lot of time to persuade them to bring their children to our class.”

“At first, our mother does not want us to teach students because we are disabled and we don’t have degrees. However, to date, we have taught hundreds of students so far, some of them have grown up into useful people in the society, and some of them are learning at universities,” Phu said.

Phu and Phi call themselves ‘tutors’ who just give extra lessons to help students understand lessons they get at school better. However, they still get flowers on November 20, the Vietnamese Teachers’ Day.

“We receive rose-mallow flowers from students on that day. We receive our old students who always visit us when they have time. This makes us very happy,” Phi said.

He went on to say that the bad health forces them to stay in hospitals for many days. However, even in the bad conditions, they never think of stopping the class.

The teachers

Phu and Phi have one sister and another brother. Meanwhile, Phu and Phi are unlucky as their brother and sister.

Tuyet, their mother, related that she liked to have daughters. Therefore, she always wore dresses for Phi. Phu and Phi were the lovely boys who played and grew up, but they could never walk. Tuyet said sadly that she prayed for the two brothers and brought them to hospitals, but this has not helped.

As the two could not walk, they stayed at home to play with dogs, cats and yellow fish until one day when they asked the mother to bring them to school. The mother, who loves children, had to carry the two boys on her back every day to school.

“I was crying very much when seeing my children were unable to play in the field with their friends. However, I was happy because the teachers all said that my children were very good at learning,” Tuyet said.

However, one day, the two boys decided not to go to school any more. Their father left the warm house where his family lives. Meanwhile, Tuyet’s diseases put difficulties for their works which brought money.

Tuyet related that Phu and Phi never complain about their disabilities, because they love their mother. For the past several years, Phu and Phi have still been staying on their feet and always been the moral support for the old mother.

VietNamNet/SGTT