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Published: January 12th 2009
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Local boys school
Our health education session during their Bazm -e -abad morning Work Blog
Been looking at the blog entries and realised that I haven’t really said much about why we are actually here i.e. WORK!
I will try and describe a typical day but they are always different which is a good thing really!!
Our ‘office’ is a few moments walk away situated on the roof of the Girls High School. The High School is in the largest building in the village and it used to be a very grand house belonging to a Sikh family. It is built around a court yard and could be beautiful with some good painting and loving care.
I often stay for their assembly which the girls always organise themselves as quite often there are no teachers as the transport from Kot Rahda Kishen is not ever so reliable! They recite verses from the Koran, some of the girls have lovely voices, sing the Pakistani National Anthem, they have a ‘thought of the day’ and a word of the day. Sometimes they do a little role play or read out an essay. Then it is hand and nail inspection as they march off to the tiny dark. and at the moment, cold classrooms.
Local boys school
Our health education session Rabia is showing them how to use a soap bottle--slivers of soap in a bottle! They have chairs with one wide arm rest as there is no room for ordinary desks. All the chairs are for right handed people! The classrooms do have displays as all the staff have been on Ali Institute trainings but getting them to stay stuck on the wall is difficult.
There are not enough teachers for each grade so some lessons are teachersless!
We have done some teaching and the grade 6 class are very bright and responsive to our more interactive methods of teaching. The older students find it very difficult if you stray from the text book which they learn off by heart. If you phrase a question differently or ask for an alternative but similar answer they are flummoxed!
Part of our brief is to give the staff more training and so far I have delivered sessions on all my favourite topics like lesson planning and handwriting!!! The staff are a lovely bunch of girls—all quite young and rather naïve. They love Geoff and giggle and twitter around him! At lunch break no-one will start until Mr Geoff is sitting down and guess who gets the biggest portion of food!!
Our other responsibility is training the two
Local boys school
Some of you might recognise the posters! TARC teachers who are helping to build up the capacity and effectiveness of 5 local government schools. And here is the biggest challenge. We have managed to obtain a computer, printer and wireless phone for the office----all of which is great for the couple of hours a day when there is power, internet access and even for the first couple of weeks toner!! One of the girls can type but ICT training is needed and Geoff spends a lot of time making easy to use pro-formers for all the reports and minutes we are expected to send back to AIE. I don’t think they realise that we live out here in the sticks and whereas they have a generator for when the power is off we don’t!! The laptop is certainly proving itself most useful!
We try and visit the schools 2 or 3 times a month to take a programme of ideas for them to carry out, some resources, and to check that they are having all the legal meetings and things required! Some of the stuff is mad and how they will ever be able to achieve the goals I have no idea. To get at the money
Local girls school
I think this picture speaks for itself to pay for whitewashing they need school council meetings that are quorate and as most of the members never turn up the money stays locked away somewhere! Very frustrating as we can pay for wall paintings but we cant paint until the whitewash is done!!
It can take 40 minutes to reach some schools as the roads are not roads at all -just dirt tracks!
Some schools are more cooperative than others. Some have such vast problems with building repairs needed and I can understand their frustration with us when we say we can do nothing to help there but please will they display the timetables!!! The basics are not in place and so expecting the staff to organise debates and poster competitions seems rather futile but it is what we are supposed to be doing. UNICEF child friendly schools policy! Funny it doesn’t mention enough teachers ,
Oh dear, I am getting just as cynical as I was at home!!
I really enjoy going into schools and the children are great! We did some health education the other Friday, a bit missionary like with guitar and songs
Local girls school
Taken from the roof of the high school .This is the local primary school for girls but the teacher seldom turns up so they play cricket with the broken furniture. but good fun!
I hope the photos give you some idea of how things are here.
Books do not feature at all in any school so I thinking of getting some money raised to get a small library corner in each school. More news to follow!!
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Tony Paplauskas
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Catch you later!
Great photos, but no time to talk... Ofsted in school this week. Yes, honestly!! Catch you later. Tony.