The monsoon is Nepalling

Day One of our LRTT training course was a brilliant experience. All of us had spent the previous night planning each of our sessions. This ended up taking a good few hours but was a great experience for each to think about how we could best deliver engaging sessions on engagement and differentiated sessions on differentiation.

I was so nervous about the start of the course this morning. One reason was that I had planned to deliver an ‘inspirational’ speech that included a chant in Sanskrit Nepalese to 65 Nepalese teachers. The main reason for being nervous was the very real worry that the 65 Nepalese teachers wouldn’t turn up to this training course that I have spent the last 7 months organising!

Thankfully with five minutes to go before the opening ceremony, we had reached full capacity. This meant that we would be delivering our LRTT course to over 65 teachers. Bhupi started off with a speech about VIN (our partner charity). I followed, and thankfully collaborated with a Nepalese teacher for the Sanskrit chant.

We split the teachers into groups with two facilitators each, and made our way to the training rooms.  At first we found the language barrier difficult but we resorted to our bank of strategies for dealing with this in our students and the puzzled stares were soon replaced with enthusiastic smiles. Clare R. and Kay faced the additional barrier of a brilliantly positioned window that pinged water into the centre of their classroom creating a lake that reminded us it really is monsoon season in Nepal.

By lunch time (1445 due to a logistical error- TIAsia), we were all buzzing with enthusiasm. It was reassuring and inspiring to hear from the teachers that they were really grateful for our training and full of praise for their facilitators.

An exhausting day spent delivering and planning LRTT sessions has reduced Clare M. and Kay to hysterical laughter about pictures of funny cats. Rich and Jack have invented a game of catch that persuades Gemma that she is involved but really isn’t. Parveen has lost her voice trying to out-moo the group without laughing and some, but not all of us, can see the moon in the spoon. 

We can Kathmandu this!

Over the last few days we have done a bit of exploring in Kathmandu and had our Nepal volunteering induction from VIN (Volunteer Initiative Nepal). Most importantly, we've visited 10 Nepalese schools, seen 40 lessons, and observed the teaching of over 1000 students.

 

On Thursday we took a taxi to the hills surrounding Kathmandu, to find a landscape free of mopeds, anti-pollution face masks, and the constant chaotic stream of traffic which often defies all logic with its cavalier attitude to safety. Our first stop was a Hindu temple in Gokarna, dedicated to Shiva, and perched elegantly on the curve of a meandering river. Walking past beautiful views of Kathmandu, a working monastery balanced on a hilltop, we saw prayer flags hanging from pines across the route. Through the monsoon rain we reached Bodhnath, the most important site for Tibetan Buddhists in Nepal; a hugely impressive structure with an elegant white dome, larger than life painted eyes; an unexpected serenity in a bustling part of the city.

 

On Friday and Saturday we had our introduction to Volunteering in Nepal at VIN. This included more health advice, and an introduction to the charity. We were inspired by the impact VIN is having on local communities in Nepal. The organisation focuses in on one community and provides support in four key areas: education, women’s empowerment, health, and finance. Although our aim is to support schools by giving them access to alternative teaching strategies, we are now far more aware of the importance of the other areas of development required for progress in these communities. Our Nepali lessons generated a lot of laughter and should hopefully be useful during our stay – derrai ramro chha! As always, there were plenty of discussions to be had on education and teaching and it was fantastic to be able to learn so much from Bhupi (Founder of VIN), Dinesh (a local Principal and volunteer manager at VIN), and Professor Ganga (an all round Nepalese education expert).

VIN organised a two-day school observation experience for us, which included visiting 10 different schools to learn as much as we could about Nepalese education and meet some of the teachers that will be attending our course.

 

It was both a fascinating and humbling experience to visit the Nepalese schools. Both pupils and teachers all wore the sunny Nepalese smile, and it was great to share experiences of teaching with staff at the schools. The outside differences were the ones we noticed first: balconies not corridors, teachers moving from classroom to classroom and not the pupils, two languages are used to teach depending on subject and grade, and views from the classrooms stretch across a stunning vista of paddy fields and cloud shrouded hills with a spectacular view across the city of Kathmandu. A Grade 3 English class was treated to a special guest...none other than an inquisitive local goat! She was dead set against leaving the classroom – in Nepal, even the goats want to learn!  In conversations with pupils and teachers, and through observations, we realised just how many similarities our two education systems share. Teachers want children to learn and children want to succeed. In debrief discussions, excitement is building around the impact our training could have and there is a real sense of purpose in the group; how can we use our experience to aid teachers to build learning power for such a motivated and engaging group of young people?

 

 

Day one in the Teach for Nepal House

'In Nepal 82% of all children are in public schools'

'72% of these children fail the GCSE equivalent School Leaving Certificate (SLC)'

Teach for Nepal

    We sit on the terrace of ‘Teach for Nepal House’ overlooking Kathmandu. We, the ten Teach First participants who have just finished a grueling first two years, can barely contain our excitement for what lies in store for us over the next four weeks. We are here to deliver LRTT training to 65 Nepalese teachers, and incredibly, the first cohort of 34 Teach for Nepal participants. We are under strict instructions not to drink the water; eat the chutneys; salads or anything spicy, but to share our experience with educators in a new and exciting context.

    We split today up ‘Apprentice’ style. Sub-team two headed to central Kathmandu to get some ideas and prices for our excursions over the next four weeks. Sub-team one went to a meeting with one of our partners, Volunteer Initiative Nepal (VIN) to talk about logistics for our teacher training course, which ended up being a massive discussion on international education - there were so many similarities! As in so many education systems there are a mix of interest groups clashing on common issues: assessment, accountability, training, political interference.  Yet we all agree; if we can engage more children in learning we will move towards a fairer, more empowered tomorrow.

    The meeting with VIN was hugely reassuring. Bhupi (their founder) was really inspiring and his provision for our course was perfect. He explained about the high expectations that they have of our course, and the local excitement that is building around the programme. Apparently Head teachers, training providers, and members of the Nepalese version of Ofsted are attending the sessions! Bhupi was kind enough to lay out a lunch (curry and chapatti) and when asked if any of us wanted more, we dug deep on our Nepalese cultural awareness and tucked in to a second plate!

    Sub team Two endured a grueling morning of eating copious amounts of delicious momos in the winding backstreets of Thamel and practising basic Nepalese phrases with some of the locals. We (Parveen and Clare M.) squeezed in a bit of tough negotiation to ensure we have some exciting plans for the holidays. Sub Team Two visited the central and oldest square in Kathmandu and were exposed to a strange cultural mix of Hindu theology (81% of Nepalese follow the religion), Hippie history (Jimi Hendrix and friends used the ancient temples as a backdrop for their indulgences), and visited a living God (chosen partly on her ability to not be afraid when confronted by 92 slaughtered animals). Once reunited a group indulgence session in a UV-lit middle eastern restaurant rounded off the day nicely.

10 teachers in Nepal, Summer 2070

 

Last summer, I was lucky enough to volunteer with LRTT in Uganda. The 4 week course that we ran was a fantastic experience. The teachers from the UK and Uganda that I was working with were inspiring and so positive for the whole summer. They had a massive impact on me when I got back to teaching in the UK.

 

 

 

It's been about 10 months now since I was sat in a pub by Baker Street station getting incredibly exciting about running an LRTT (Limited Resource Teacher Training) project in Nepal. I didn't really think I would be able to do it but slowly everything has come together and now we have a team of 10 Teach Firsters with bags packed, ready to leave for the airport in the next few days!

 

I'm going to be blogging all about the experience here so please follow it to get your daily updates. If you're interested in joining a similar project in the future, see www.lrtt.org for regular announcements about upcoming projects.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom