Gansuld Bayartulga

Gansuld Bayartulga attended the Step by Step primary school in Sukhbaatar (sum Selenge province), Mongolia, when he was between 6 and 9 years old. There he met a teacher that changed his life.

“The most vivid memory that I have is about the day she left the school and moved to the capital. The whole class accompanied her to the train station and when she left we all cried a lot.” says Gansuld Bayartulga. “Her name is Terbish Munkhtsatsral. She was with us in first and third grade. I’ve learned everything that I know from her. She was the reason why I’ve decided to become a teacher,” explains Bayartulga who will graduate as a teacher of Chinese next year. 

“She was like a mother to us. If something was wrong she would come and talk to us like a family member does,” he continues.

Bayartulga remembers they also traveled together to school competitions and to visit other schools in the region. “During those trips, I learned how to communicate and relate myself to people I did not know.”

They participated in several national competitions, in sport, maths, singing and dancing (this last one at provincial level).

“Sometimes, before a competition, we slept in the school and she treated us like her own children,” he says. “We won most the first prize most of the times and I think is because she taught us all.”

“Sometimes we would have class outside, doing practical things, while children in other schools would sit and study in front of a book all day long” he explains.

Bayartulga’s parents were also teachers in the same primary school. “They advised me not to become a teacher too – he says – I guess because the job is hard and the salary too low”.

In 2013, his mother died. “A couple of days later I opened the door and my teacher was there. She had come by taxi to give me her condolences. She said to me: 'if anytime you find it too hard to live without your mother, whenever you want, you can call me', and I cried”.

“I also remember how the students of my mother loved her so much. Then I realized that being a teacher is actually an honor. And that gave me an even stronger push to enroll university and become a teacher myself,” Bayartulga concludes.