Children with learning difficulties require special teacher support to make the most of their education.
Three years ago, Niem could not read or write properly, despite being in Grade 3. Due to learning difficulties, Niem had also repeated first, second and third grades multiple times, and was struggling to continue her primary school education. However, once she was assigned to Ms Lich`s class, everything changed.
Read Niem’s story below, and how Ms Lich was able to turn the child’s schooling around with a teaching strategy aimed at overcoming learning difficulties.
Getting Niem back to school
Ms Lich, a teacher at a ChildFund-supported primary school in rural Vietnam, has been dedicated to assisting children with learning difficulties for her whole career. Therefore, when Niem was absent from class for the first week of the new school year, Ms Lich visited Niem`s family home to find out what was happening. She discovered that both Niem and her parents were reluctant for her to go to school. They were worried that she would repeat again and her classmates would tease her.
Ms Lich did her best to persuade Niem`s parents to let her continue her education. She promised them that she would teach Niem how to read and write, so that she would not repeat again. With further encouragement from Niem`s elder sister, who Ms Lich had also helped overcome learning difficulties, Niem and her parents decided that she would go back to school.
How Ms Lich helped Niem overcome learning difficulties
Throughout the school year, Ms Lich kept her promise to Niem. She paid special attention to her during class, tutored her after school, and regularly visited her family to update them about her progress. By the end of the year, Niem was able to read, write, and do maths by herself, meeting the requirements to move onto Grade 4 with her other classmates.
“My teacher helped me to read until I was confident to volunteer to read before the class. Ms Lich and all of my other classmates clapped their hands to encourage me and that made me very happy,” says Niem.
How is Niem performing at school now?
Niem is now in Grade 5 and more confident than ever before. Although Ms Lich is no longer her teacher, Niem continues to study hard as she wants to do her proud, and hopes to complete high school in the coming years.
“I am very proud of my career as a teacher. I still love my job and really want to devote myself to helping more children in remote areas,” says Ms Lich.
Recently, the Provincial Department for Education and Training awarded Ms Lich for her great work with children who have learning difficulties. With Ms Nong, the former School Manager also advising that Ms Lich is a “very devoted teacher and a good example for us to follow”.
If there’s one thing we can learn from the story of Niem and Ms Lich, it’s that a passionate teacher can overcome the odds and bring a child a brighter future.
Support the education of children like Niem
There are many other children like Niem, whose education is marred by ineffective approaches to learning difficulties, and a lack of understanding from their parents. You can help change the outcome of their education, and keep them in school.
All it takes is a simple gift. We offer a catalogue of Gifts for Good, including a range of education-focused donations. You could gift school supplies to a child in need, a library of books and resources to a classroom or reduce gender inequality by funding the education of a young girl.
At ChildFund, it’s our mission to ensure every child enjoys the education that they need. We can’t do it alone, but with your help, every child can have a childhood.
Ten months ago, 27-year-old Huyen`s destiny seemed written in stone – marry young, raise a family and work as a farmer to support them, like so many of her female peers living in one of the poorest parts of Kim Boi District, Vietnam.
Today, she is married with a five-year-old daughter, and supplements her husband`s income through her work as a corn farmer, but a world of new opportunities has opened up to her after being trained as a rugby and life-skills coach through ChildFund`s Pass it Back program, which is implemented in partnership with Women Win and Asia Rugby, and supported by the Australian Government.
“I consider myself so lucky because it is very uncommon for women to be allowed to attend any social activities after getting married [in my region],” says Huyen of the innovative sport for development program designed to help children and youth overcome challenges, inspire positive social change and ‘pass it back’ to their communities.
“[In Vietnam], children in rural areas do not have much chance to play like kids in big cities,” she adds, noting her daughter “has already expressed a desire to learn rugby when she grows up.”
For the one billion youth under the age of 24 living in 11 Asian countries where Pass it Back eventually hopes to reach, opportunities are limited, not only to participate in organised sport but to learn important leadership and life skills. By giving young women and men the chance to come together in a fun and safe sporting environment €“ where they can be trained by coaches from their own community, in their own language €“ Pass It Back delivers an integrated rugby and life-skills curriculum, providing vital learning and development opportunities that will help them face the challenges of a fast-changing region.
“Besides the Pass It Back curriculum, coaches usually share our own real experiences to facilitate life-skills discussions,” adds Huyen.
Another key objective of the Pass it Back program is to address gender inequity and violence issues, which remain a challenge in many communities. As rugby is a relatively new sport in most Asian countries, there are no fixed ideas about who should play, which has encouraged high rates of participation from young women and girls. Females make up more than half of the 1,500+ registered Pass It Back players, aged between 11 and 16, and half of the coaches. As a result, the program is already reaching its goal of seeing more women and girls with stronger leadership and life skills.
After rising fast through the program to represent the Lao Women`s National Rugby Team and work for the Lao Rugby Federation, 24-year-old Lao (pictured above, centre), from Nonghet district, has become an example of the power of sport to effect change for young women in rural areas.
“As a girl I was always very shy. Now I am a brave and confident young woman,” says Lao, who has become a role model in her community. “I want to help involve as many Lao girls and women from rural and remote communities as possible in rugby so they too can feel brave and strong.”
With rugby chosen for its promotion of strong values such as integrity, solidarity and respect, other coaches are also seeing the benefits of the Pass It Back program.
“Once I became a coach, I realised that life skills are really important and effective with our players,” says 28-year-old Hon (pictured above, left), from Vietnam`s Kim Boi District. “As our players are young and limited in their knowledge of life and the world, it is easier for them to understand and learn about the real-life topics that we discuss through playing rugby games.”
Hon adds that rugby is a good discipline tool, something he likes to joke about with the players` parents: “When our players are naughty and don`t listen, we tell them, ‘You learn rugby, you know it is not acceptable to behave like this,’ and the players very quickly improve their behaviour!”
Watch this video to learn more.