Reflection on teaching in India

Hi everyone , now I have had time to think about it a bit ( and some time to write it ! ) here are some thoughts on my recent trip to India, where I taught some English at a primary / middle school.There were 19 of us altogether - three of us were English teachers, the rest doctors and nurses, and we went for 2 weeks to the South West of India.

On the first day after recovering fromn the very long journey, the two other English teachers and I introduced ourselves to Mr Alex, the Headmaster of the school , and arranged to observe some English classes the next day. We were then all invited to the school assembly where we were officially welcomed as a team and given the traditional coconut drink ( from real coconuts with a straw ). We returned to the hotel by bus , would we ever get used to the way people drive in India ? !
Tuesday 23rd dawned , hot and noisy , and I had completely forgotten that it was my birthday until Helen congratulated me ! The team had even arranged balloons and decorations in the meeting room at the hotel , which we used daily for morning prayers and evening worship times together. They had also arranged for a big chocolate cake to be provided with the evening meal ! We set off for the campus and when we arrived there was already a queue of people waiting for the medical camp to begin. The doctors would be very busy that day !

Helen, Jimmi and I went up to the school and observed a few lessons and Sam got to meet lots of school children , who completely surrounded him , all asking him the same question in their Indian accent : " What is your name ? !" His reaction was to turn into a tiger and chase them all around the playground ! Lots of squealing ensued !

On observing the lessons , I felt that it would be difficult to break away from the style of teaching that the children were used to - because that is what they need to pass their exams, , which were coming up soon. The facilities included wooden benches and tables for the children and a blackboard with chalk for the teachers . Each child also had a text book , a work book containing grammar and vocabulary exercises, and a blank exercise book. The lessons we saw , especially for the older children, consisted of reading difficult texts and doing grammar exercises , each child standing in turn to answer questions, the answers to which they had learnt at home the night before. The teachers worked very hard in difficult circumstances and we didn't want to disturb the school curriculum too much , or walk in arrogantly as if we knew better, but we did hope to make the lessons a bit more fun and lively for the children. At least , in the younger groups it was nice to see them learning action songs and rhymes, which they obviously enjoyed. The teachers received little pay and worked very hard to ensure that these children from poor local villages and from the orphanage had a chance at some education , especially some education in English, as this was an English medium school and all lessons are taught in English . The hope was that this would improve their future prospects of getting better jobs or going into higher education, and hopefully of escaping the poverty trap.

We began our teaching the next day . The school day begins at 10am and ends at 3.30pm with 7 lessons and two short breaks. Even the youngest children have 7 separate lessons , with 7 different teachers ( though they also have an afternoon nap on the classroom floor after lunch ! ) I took the 7th Standard class, aged 13- 14 years , and although I did use the text book , I also played word games with them and got them speaking a bit too, as well as doing a running dictation ! It was difficult at first , because they were not used to doing anything out of the ordinary, and they always felt they must stand up to give an answer. Also they were not used to my "English" English accent and could not understand me until they got used to me a bit more. There was also the problem of noise - the classrooms were all open and close to each other , so there was the noise of the 360 or so other children , not to mention the noise of the monsoon-like rain which fell quite a lot while we were there ! They also spoke very quietly as they were quite shy until they got to know me a bit better. No problems with behaviour though at all !

Sam was so good when I was teaching , he would sit with the children and read his books or do his sticker books by himself, or sometimes he helped me by rubbing the board , even telling the children once that they must not scribble but write clearly, and showed them an example of both on the blackboard ! ( clarity of instructions - a budding teacher there I think ! )

Jimmi, meanwhile, was teaching jolly phonics to a younger class , and managed to get them all doing the sounds and actions - the teacher was taking notes too. It was nice to see them interacting and having fun, and Sam joined in these lessons and learnt lots.

Helen taught a middle class, also having to stick to the text book quite closely. In her class there was a child who obviously had special needs , though this was not normally catered for in any way and he caused a few problems with his behaviour as a result, which was a challenge for Helen. There were lots of opportunities for supply teaching too , as several teachers were absent and whole classes would often sit without a teacher for the length of the lesson.

We had received a couple of donations from friends before we left, so we were able to buy some new sports equipment and some new science equipment for the school, which was very gratefully received by the teachers. Although the school has gained recognition as a primary school , it does not receive any funding from the government, because it was set up privately by the church to fill a need in the local area.

What would I do next time ? I would love to get right away from the text book , but as this is not really possible , because of the exam system, I would try to find ways to do more communicative activities based on the texts they were reading. As there were no photocopying facilites , I had to find other ways to teach using minimal resources - lots of plain paper and other props such as balls etc. It certainly stretches the imagination !
Anyone got any other ideas ?
I'm looking forward to going again soon - and would be grateful for any tips !
Jackie x