School Visits

Me with the scared nursury students
Outdoor/indoor classrooms
computer room ( no internet)
playground and door ways to classrooms

The first thing that happens is a rest and have tea to recover from our five minute travel over to the school. Secondly, we are escorted to nursury classrooms and computer classrooms. The chirldren are very loud when we first arrive and then they get very very quiet when we step in the room. We talk and take pictures and they sit silent with big eyes. Some of the children are asked to sing and it is very sweet. They sit and stare and then when we leave they burst into giggles. The one teacher said that for some it would be the first time they have seen a white person.

I see the bare essentials in one of the better government schools. The walls have colorful things on them and the children are all dressed in uniform. This is one of the better schools. When we enter an extremely crowded classroom, we are told that one of the teachers is on a 4 month mat leave ( there is no replacement teacher...the children are divided between the other classrooms until the teacher returns). The next school we go to there are 2 women on mat leave and so the classrooms are very full. There are 700 students at the first school and the second school has about 1400... they come in two shifts 7:30-12:30 and 1:30-5:30 The girls come in the morning and the boys come in the second shift.

The toilet and clean drinking water is an issue. The school we see are very lucky, they have water and a few toilets (7 at the first school and 10 at the second) Some of the children that come to these schools do not have any bathrooms at home and will wait to come to school to use the ones there. This is one of the better schools. Some of the schools do not have good water or toilets..and some don't even have a building.

The teachers are stressed for space and they will often hold classes outside. They will take turns (one or two classes outside and then they will switch with another class). They struggle with attendance problems. Children will not come to school if the weather is poor..there is no means of transportation to get them to school.

They asked if school holidays were in the winter ( because they consider this to be our extreme weather time) When they have extreme weather like monsoons and heat..this is when school holidays are. A very different rationale for holding classes.

The schools we visited had very hospitable hosts. We were greeted with beautiful flowers and given shawls as gifts...it was very humbling when observing the limited resources adn struggles of the teachers. The one teacher said...education must come..the buildings will follow. We cannot eliminate poverty if there is no education. But she also said that it is a horrid circle..poverty is the root of limited education.

The computer room had 7 computers and at the second school there were 6. They leave their classroom and come in groups of 3 for a couple of hours a week. A very different type of idea abot technology and expectations.

The school visit was very interesting and at the same time very important for me to realize the needs of some of the teachers we were teaching. I am glad that I had such good hosts.

At the end of the school visits the headmasters gave us beautiful bouquets and wool shawls that were embroidered.

The gifts are quite beautiful..as were the students,

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