These are the exemplary individuals and collectives who contribute to nurturing the dreams of students in the mountainous areas, helping education in Điện Biên overcome challenges and achieve new milestones.

The collective of Tả Phìn Boarding Secondary School in Tả Phìn commune, Tủa Chùa district, is one of the exemplary units in the patriotic emulation movement of the Education and Training sector in the 2020-2025 period, recently recognized and honored. The school operates in a remote area full of difficulties, with the most challenging facilities in the district (all classrooms and offices are either 4-classroom buildings or temporary rooms), 100% of students are from the Mông ethnic minority group, with more than 70% of students coming from poor households. In the 2024-2025 school year, the school has 11 classes with 395 students, but only 17 teachers, 6 teachers short of the required quota. Despite many challenges, the school continues to perform well, ensuring students’ right to education and continuously improving the quality of teaching and learning.

Nguyễn Minh Tiến, the school’s principal, proudly shared: “With our love for the profession and the children of the highlands, each teacher strives not only in teaching but also in accompanying, supporting, and helping students stay engaged with their studies. As a result, the school has consistently maintained student enrollment and graduation rates. All students are promoted to the next grade and graduate from secondary school. They are encouraged to participate in competitions and have achieved encouraging results. In the 2024-2025 school year, the school’s students won 1 prize at the district-level science and technology competition, 4 prizes in the district’s 9th-grade academic competition, and 1 prize at the provincial level.”

With the efforts of both teachers and students, the school was recognized as a national standard school level 1 at the end of 2023. In the 2020-2021 school year, the school received the Prime Minister’s Certificate of merit and in the 2023-2024 school year, it received a Flag of Emulation from the provincial People’s Committee. The school is now proposing to award it the Third-class Labor Medal.

Nguyễn Thị Chuyên is also one of the fragrant flowers in the “flowers of gratitude to Uncle Hồ” in the province’s education and training sector. She works at Mường Toong No.1 Boarding Primary School in Mường Toong commune, Mường Nhé district. For 18 years, she has dedicated herself to the “growing of people” in the border areas. Chuyên shared: “I always understand my role and responsibility as a primary school teacher. Along with improving professional expertise and exploring new teaching methods to make lessons more interesting and engaging, I also spend time learning about the students’ circumstances, especially those who face difficulties, in order to share with them and create a bond between teachers and students.”

Thanks to this approach, the classes she has taught have consistently had a 100% promotion rate. During her career, she has won the title of “Excellent teacher” at the provincial level four times and received two Certificates of Merit from the provincial People’s Committee. In the 2022-2023 school year, she was honored with the Prime Minister’s Certificate of merit and in 2024, was recognized as a national exemplary teacher.

The “garden of flowers” in the provincial education and training sector also includes many other blooming flowers. In recent years, the sector has focused on building exemplary models in emulation movements; timely identifying, selecting, and fostering exemplary individuals with many innovations, creativity, and outstanding achievements in management, teaching, and professionalism, leading emulation movements. The sector’s reward work has also been innovated to select and reward those whose achievements align with the implementation of work plans and professional tasks, ensuring real, fair, and objective recognition. As a result, many exemplary collectives and individuals in the sector have been recognized and rewarded by the Party, the State, and various levels of government. At the end of April 2025, the provincial Department of Education and Training held a ceremony to honor 15 collectives and 50 individuals with outstanding achievements in the patriotic emulation movement of the sector in the 2020-2025 period.

Hoàng Tuyết Ban, Director of the provincial Department of Education and Training, shared that for the education sector in general, President Hồ Chí Minh once instructed that “Teachers must pay attention to both talent and virtue, talent is culture, professionalism, and virtue is politics... Therefore, teachers must set an example” and “Teachers have the noble and glorious task of training cadres for the nation.” His teachings have become the goals of each official, teacher, and staff in the entire sector. Along with learning and following the thought, ethics, and style of Hồ Chí Minh, civil servants, employees, students, and trainees in the education sector have actively participated in movements and emulation campaigns initiated by the sector, the Government, and the province. Over the past 5 years, despite many difficulties, the Education sector in Điện Biên has overcome challenges, completing the emulation targets set by the province and the Ministry of Education and Training, and nurturing “fragrant flowers” of positive achievements dedicated to Uncle Hồ.

These “blossoms” and emulation movements continue to spread widely in the Education sector, creating motivation to drive the entire sector toward the successful completion of its political tasks, contributing to the socio-economic development of the province, and training high-quality human resources to serve the country’s development.