E. was already among the most talented students in our
class when we came. He also seemed to hold a somewhat privileged position
vis-a-vis his peers. In some way that was impossible for me to pin down he was
in-charge. During our first day of class we played some simple games with the
children to assess their knowledge; first we asked them to count upwards, and
stopped them around thirty, then we went over directions (asking them to point
left, right, up, down etc): a few had problems, after this we started to test
knowledge of articles of clothing, opposites, building materials, animals etc.
It quickly became apparent that the knowledge of English of various students
differed widely (see some of our beginning posts for more details). The less
knowledgeable students more or less followed the lead of E. Our first class was
held in one of the outdoor classrooms in Azani (all the classrooms in Butre are
indoor). Teaching outdoors was our preference in the beginning; a gentle breeze
cooled us as we stood in the shade and there was plenty of light, but we
couldn't stay outside for long.
Naturally, many children wanted to be included who
weren't in the program and this led to chaos after the teachers who were
helping us left for the day. This is why teaching out-of-doors proved
impractical. During the classes we held during the strike we taught
out-of-doors, but it was a major problem getting the other children to leave
and go home.
Children who knew how to read a little bit benefited
the most from our program, and happily this included most of the children. The
progress we saw was edifying, a few children improved drastically.
The children are so happy to read. Most schools in the
west have a "school library", a small room stocked with books.
Nothing similar exists here and this is unfortunate.
All of the parents of the children are motivated to
send their children to school (even government schools charge tuition and
education is not compulsory): some through a genuine desire to better the lives
of their children, some are motivated by social pressure. Nevertheless, sending
their children to school is an enormous sacrifice for most of them. Consider
this: 10 Liters of Sashi water costs 70 Euro Cents, but most of the children do
not drink sashi water but instead drink water from streams or wells. At our
final meeting the children were just as happy to receive the sashi waters we
used to keep the coca-cola cold, as they were to receive the coca-cola itself.
Most of their parents don't know how to read, few know English. They don't have
many books at home.
This partially explains why they are so happy to read
books, but it is at most contributory to the main cause. The main cause is that
they are happy, intelligent and motivated children who are curious and positive
and love good stories, just like people everywhere.
--Tomaž
Prvi dan pouka sva pričela s
preprosto igro osnov besedišča – začeli smo s štetjem, nadaljevali s smermi
neba (kazali smo levo, desno, gor, dol itd.), z naštevanjem oblačil, nasprotij,
gradbenih materialov, živali ipd. Tako sva vsaj približno dobila občutek na kateri
stopnji je znanje angleščine najinih učencev. Hitro sva opazila da so med njimi
velike razlike. E. je bil eden do tistih, ki so zelo izstopali. Tako glede
stopnje znanja, kot tudi glede pozicije v razredu. Bil je vodilni glas v
skupinskih utrjevanjih in ponavljanjih, ki so mu ostali sledli. Za E.-ja so
bile bralne urice zelo poučne, a ugotavljava, da so od najinega pouka največ,
še več kot E., odnesli učenci, ki so pred najinim prihodom brali solidno.
Veseli naju, da to skupino predstavlja večina.
Nasploh je v obeh krajih, tako v
Azaniju kot v Butrah, vladal velik entuzijazem glede branja. V Gani namreč ne
obstaja nič takega kot “šolske knjižnjice”, ki so v zahodnih državah nekakšen
standard. Otroci tudi doma nimajo knjig, večina njihovih staršev ne zna brati,
le izjeme znajo angleško (ki je v Gani uradni jezik).
Čeprav v Gani šola še zdaleč ni
zastonj, starši podpirajo izobraževanje svojih otrok, pa najsibo to zaradi želje po
boljšem življenju, ali zgolj zaradi družbenega pritiska. Šolnine predstavljajo
za družine velik strošek. Za boljšo predstavo: čeprav 10 litrov sashi vode
stane (le)70 centov, večina otrok pije vodo iz vaških vodnjakov. Ob zaključnem
srečanju niso bili nič manj veseli hladnih sashi vod, s katermi sva hladila
cocacole, kot samih cocacol.
To delno razloži navdušenje nad
knjigami, a je v resnici le dodatek k središčnemu razlogu – da so ti otroci
veseli, inteligentni, motivirani, radovedni in pozitivni, ter da imajo, kot njihovi
vrstniki drugod po svetu, radi zanimive zgodbe.
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