Namaste,
Although each working day for me is different I have tried
in this post to give a flavour of a fairly typical one. (I have added photos from several different schools, so as not to show favouritism!)
My alarm goes off at 6am, but normally I’m already awake
because all the neighbours get up before this time. That includes the cockerels, which begin
their morning chorus well before 5am!
Many Nepali people go to bed early and get up early – and once they are
up, it is ok to make a noise so that everyone else wakes and gets up.
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| Early morning bus |
The bus leaves at
7am.
The bus journey takes about an hour and
half, which is followed by about 2 hours walk; across
the river on a suspension bridge, through the rice terraces and then up the path by the stream, to reach the school.
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| Across the river on the suspension bridge |
The walk today is relatively flat, so I don’t
arrive at school feeling really hot and sweaty, as I do after a steep uphill
walk.
As I pass, people stop their work
to watch curiously, and some will say “Namaste”.
The more inquisitive will ask where I’m going,
normally in Nepali, although if they can speak some English they may want to
show this off.
A foreigner in these rural
areas is an interesting event!
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| Haystack of rice stalks |
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| Rice laid flat to dry after cutting |
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| Two 'Little Sisters' on their way to school ahead of me. |
The entrance to the school is unlike those found in the UK.
Many of the rural schools do not have vehicle
access, or even a road to them, just steps or a gate.
This school has around 250 pupils, ranging in
age from 5 to 16.
There is one class for
each year group. The lower classes are smaller because, often, younger children
attend small primary schools nearer to their homes.
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| Exercises before school |
School starts at 10 am and the pupils line up in front of the classrooms, do some simple exercises to the beat of a drum, sing the National Anthem and then march into their classroom. In each class the timetable for each day is the same, so if you have an English lesson first, every day starts with English.
Having greeted the Headteacher, I go to a class to watch a maths lesson.
The pupils are sitting
quietly on wooden benches facing the board at the front, normally girls on one side of
the classroom, boys on the other.
From
experience I know that the benches are not comfortable and some may even be
broken! The walls are dirty and need a coat of paint, and there are no pictures
on the walls or books or learning resources in the classroom.
The floor is bare concrete and the windows
have wooden shutters and bars but no glass.
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| Girls on one side of the classroom. |
During the cold months of December, January and February the pupils and teachers wear coats and hats to keep warm, as there is no heating in any of the classrooms.
In fact in many classrooms I visit there is no electricity, so it is dark if the shutters are closed.
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| Hats and coats in the classroom to keep warm! |
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| Lesson in the sun |
If it is a sunny day the class may go outside to work - it is much warmer than inside!
During the day I will also work with the primary level Nepali, maths and English teachers, mainly suggesting ways that they can work to make their
lessons more effective so that their pupils understand and learn better. In many lessons that
I see the pupils spend at least some of the lesson chanting what they need to
learn – over and over again, which must be very boring.
Ideas for
change may be something as simple as asking individual pupils questions instead
of asking the whole class, who then shout back the answer in chorus.
Other methods include playing simple games or
providing homemade learning aids like charts or diagrams.
I may do some teaching to demonstrate a
different method, although this is limited to English and some maths lessons,
as my language is not nearly good enough to teach in a Nepali lesson!
In most of the schools that I visit the pupils are very
curious about me, and if I sit outside during the break times, groups of them
will come and ask me questions – “What is your country?” “Have you a
family?”
“Where do you live?”
“How old are you?”
“Do you like Nepal?” are all regular
questions.
All schools teach English –
and some even teach most subjects in English, as well-spoken English is
considered a good route to employment.
Often
students like to practise what they have learnt.
If English is taught well, by the time a
pupil is in the oldest classes, they can hold a conversation with me.
School finishes at 4pm and everyone, including teachers,
leaves quickly. Many, both students and teachers, have a long walk home,
sometimes up to 2 hours, and work or chores to do when they get there.
I retrace my morning journey, arriving back
at my flat as it gets dark.
Fortunately
the local shops around my home are open until late so I’m able to buy fresh
milk and any vegetables I need for my supper.
Having written up my visit notes from the day and answered
emails from home if I have any Internet, I will usually curl up with a book and
turn in early for bed, tired after a busy day and mindful of an early start in the morning again.
