Laxmi Higher Secondary School

On Sunday (19-Jul-2009), Sanjiv (despite his injured ankle) brought me to see the English teacher (Mr. Ishari) at Laxmi Higher Secondary School, which is about 30 minutes away from Hope and Home Library House (by bicycle). The school is located in another village. Cycling on the uneven road (full of stones and pebbles) is very challenging, especially I was trying to catch up with Sanjiv, who was cycling at a very leisure pace.

Oh, did you wonder, "why Sunday?" In Nepal, Friday is working half day, and Saturday is an off day, Sunday is a working day. If you wishes to shop at Narayangahd, don't go on Monday, 90% of the shops are closed.

Along the way to the school, Sanjiv was guiding me on how to remember the route to the school, because I should be going to the school alone after that day. The meeting with the Mr Ishari only lasted for about 30-45 minutes. During the conversation, I understood that it was summer vacation, so there were no proper time-tabled lessons. Only extra classes were conducted during the period that I was in Chitwan.

The school staff and students are accustomed to having volunteers going there for teaching English. They are extremely friendly to volunteers, and the students are always curious in seeing a foreigner. Everyone was staring at me like an alien. After the meeting, we (Sanjiv and I) went back to the Library House. On the return trip, Sanjiv purposely asked me to lead the way, to ensure that I could remember the way back to Library House.

On Monday (20-Jul), I started my assignment in Laxmi Secondary School. The school consists of students from Grade 6 to Grade 12. (Sanjiv, correct me if I am wrong.)

The lessons started at 6am, and ended around 10am or 11am, depending on the grade of the students. The students were required to go home and helped up in the fields. Some students will be back to school in late afternoon, after their work in the fields.

Yes, I didn't type wrongly and you didn't read wrongly, the lessons started at 6am!!! Everyday, I woke up around 4:45am, washed up and headed to the school without breakfast. Luckily, the sun rose very early (around 5am), so I didn't need to cycle in the dark.

I perspired very easily, so I usually cycle with my singlets and shorts. When I was near to the school, I will change to my Jeans and T-Shirts. If I would to cycle with Jeans & T-Shirts, I would be totally drenched with my sweat when I arrived at the school, which happened on the first day.

For the first few lessons, the teachers were kind to let me sit in their classes as observers. When the students were doing exercises given by the teacher, I will walk around to help the students. After a few lessons of observation, I started my own class.

The first class was for Grade 6 students, quite young. While I was teaching, there were so many students crowding outside the classroom, peeping from the windows and door. I was unsure of their command of English, but from the conversations, it seemed to me that they were quite weak in English. I didn't have a textbook. So, i just started to use the chalk to draw pictures on the blackboard, and asked the students to spell and write the objects I was drawing. The students also started to copy what I drew and named the objects in the picture. Most students were visual, drawing pictures can help them to remember better.

They are still using chalk and blackboard for teaching. Rubbing the board can be tiring and at the same time, my hands/fingers and clothes were full of chalk powder after the class. Now, I can appreciate so much on the advancement of technology, which helps us in Singapore. We are using computer and projectors to teach. If needed to, we could write on the Whiteboard. But in Nepal, you would not have the privilege of using computer, projector or whiteboard.

The following are some pictures of the students in the school.













The following are pictures of the Laxmi Higher Secondary School.




Some students were early for the class (time then was 5:45am). They were generally very friendly to volunteers.


Parking for teachers. You may be able to spot my bicycle in this pic.


Canteen in the school. Very very small. I guess most students will go home to eat, so there is no need to have a big canteen.

What did I teach?
The most difficult part was we (the volunteers) don't know what is the English proficiency of the different levels of students. The teachers will ask me to go into a class of Grade 6 or Grade 7 to teach them. No textbook was given to me, I had no idea what level should I be teaching. Should I teach them Grammar, Tenses, Compositions, Comprehension, or what? What is appropriate and what's not? Thousands of queries in the beginning. It was a bit chaotic during my first 1-2 lessons. But after that, I would first ask a student to give me his textbook, and I will choose a topic/chapter from the textbook and teach them.

Sometimes, I felt quite frustrated and I felt that I was actually giving trouble to the school, rather than helping them. I just had the thinking that I was redundant and I was not required to be there. But after talking to Sanjiv, I felt much better. He told me that Volunteers were definitely required in the school to help the students, there were not enough English teachers. It just happened that I was there during the Summer Vacation and hence, there were no proper classes, and that's why I had the wrong impression that I was actually not required.