my work

Work


My placement title is Methodology Trainer/ Teacher trainer and I’m based in one of the sub zones which has 8 primary schools, 4 secondaries and 3 seniors. The idea is to work closely with the local Ministry of Education and supervisor (inspector) to identify a group of Key teachers, train them further and they in turn will be able to give training to other teachers...all part of VSO’s sustainable development plan.
I arrived in the village on 25th February, keen to start work, only to find that both the boss and supervisor were at a meeting in Barentu which is the regions head office and situated 200 miles away. They returned last Thursday, 5th March. So I decided to help out at the local secondary school which was experiencing a bit of a teacher shortage, just 12 teachers for 1,300 pupils. I taught English to the grade 7 students, aged anywhere between 11 and 15. This was “a good learning experience” as they say; classes of 60+, often a text book between 4 and students that are just programmed to copy everything you say or write on the blackboard. They were also quite hyper at having a teacher, and especially a foreign one. They’d stand outside their classroom door shouting, “get in here, teacher!” and then clap at the end of the lesson. They also say “thank you, teacher” when asked to sit down, fight over who can clean the board and rush to carry your bag...not the surly teenagers I’m used to.

Now that the supervisor is back, we’ve started our programme. So far, we’ve visited 4 schools, met all the teachers, drunk lots of tea and once we’ve travelled round all the schools in the region start running some workshops. I should be bringing my motorbike here from Asmara this weekend to make travel a bit easier but the supervisor is not convinced about riding pillion. He keeps telling me that there are buses, but some of them only run on certain days and are often only one way.
I organised a writing competition to coincide with International Women’s Day last week. The title was “A woman I admire”. There were some good entries, several on Eritrean women fighters, but there was also many copied from books and three were exactly the same! We’re having photos and prize giving tomorrow..all very exciting.Well, that’s a brief outline for now. I’m sure I’ll have more soon.