Gill (India)

Gill, one of our volunteers, talks us through her experiences of teaching at an Indian primary school sponsored by MondoChallenge Foundation.

My experience of Indian primary school teaching began in 2008, when I had the great pleasure and honour or working alongside a group of teachers at Pioneer Preparatory School, Sindebong busty, Kalimpong.

There were about 80 children registered, aged between 2.25 and 11 years, spread between KG and class 4. The teaching staff, under Headmaster Ritesh Pradhan, were mostly female who lived locally and knew one another well. I was the ‘new girl’ and the first volunteer to come to Pioneer. Unfamiliar with the Indian education system, the curriculum and the local culture, I requested to spend the first week sitting in on lessons in each class, and listening in at daily, break-time staff meetings. This way I could gain an idea of what I could offer that fitted with the aims and needs of the school. I observed that the curriculum ruled supreme and that teaching was largely confined to textbook and rote learning. There were a few maps and charts on the walls but little sign of creativity, either of teachers or students. It also became clear that few of the teachers had received higher education or professional training, so strict adherence to written text formed the necessary backbone of their work and was, indeed, the way that they themselves had been educated.

Another Sacred Heart Prize Winner

If I was to offer anything of value, I needed to gain the confidence of the teachers; I tried to do this by only making suggestions or pointing out errors in class in a very discreet way, so that the children retained respect for their teacher. Gradually I shared ideas as to how teaching might become more flexible, more creative and more fun. Starting with the teacher’s own request for help with pronunciation, grammar and fluency, we established Friday afternoon workshops. The teachers brought their own, particular difficulties and we shared or brainstormed ways of finding solutions. In this way they were empowered to use and pool their individual experiences and become a stronger, more confident team. We also played a lot of word games which the teachers could introduce into classroom learning; I demonstrated how this could be dove-tailed into more formal exercises when I took the older children for English lessons, which engaged the class and got them thinking for themselves.

Gill Running Teachers’ Workshop at Pioneer

Small changes, we found, could make a significant impact: putting children’s pictures on the wall, having teacher-led, whole class chart making, again displayed, brought book learning to life. Instead of simply repeating what generations of teachers and pupils had done before them, copying and being compliant to other people’s ideas and methods, this group of women teachers were showing their students how to think for themselves. They have begun to inspire a new generation of girls to enquire, to expand their horizons, to express themselves fearlessly and to be ready to take their place as adults in a rapidly changing society.

Creative Writing In Progress – Top Section – Mostly Girls