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VOLUNTEER REPORT: RAMASAMUDRAM (August 2008)
We came here to Ramasamudram in August as volunteers at Modern English Medium School. At the beginning we tried to be a part of the Indian education system, with us co-operating with the teachers. However this comprised of teaching without materials, no interaction with the students and a general discouragement of individuality.
The lessons usually consisted of setting the children the task of writing out a sentence several times and memorizing it. After a short while we decided that we were not comfortable with this and wanted to use our time as volunteers to give the students another way of learning that included all of the class.
From then on we started our new approach working independently from the regular teaching staff. By spending a small amount of our own money we were able to get materials for our classes which have now allowed us to do more for the children. Our new lessons have given the students the opportunity to develop their social skills through group games and activities outside.
Before we arrived the children did not have regular sports lessons but now the children are able to spend time outside enjoying themselves while learning social skills such as how to play in a group. In addition to this we have allowed them to be creative for the first time at school through the inclusion of handicrafts in our lessons. While before many children were not able to use simple equipment like rulers and scissors we have been practicing the basics with them developing fundamental skills will encouraging creativity.
In addition to this the children’s English and communicative skills have been greatly improved allowing previously shy and quiet children to have the confidence to talk with us in English. In all of our lessons every child is able to take part and is treated equally instead of the focus being solely on the stronger students as it is in the Indian style of teaching.
We have been teaching the lesson General Knowledge which has given us the freedom to work with the children in what areas we feel will benefit them the most. A lot of our work has been very simple covering the basics such as drawing, colouring and shapes. Over the time that we have been doing this we have noticed huge improvements in the children as each one develops in his or her individual way. The children are enthusiastic and are enjoying the lessons even when the content is rather basic. We also have one lesson of English with the 5th standard. Although they are the oldest children in the school we have been focusing on the very basics of English in their lessons as even simple aspects such as capital letters are not understood but again progress has been made and the children were able to write a letter to students of the same age in England.
We have made good progress over the year even though at some stages it has been difficult and we have been working on our own without assistance from the other teaching staff. In India the teaching methods differ very much from our own such that is this way we could not work with the children. Yet as our approach is so different from what the staff are used to there is very little understanding or appreciation of our work. We therefore keep separate from the other teachers as we work in our way and they do so in theirs. While we had to change how we worked at the beginning our year we are now happy with our lessons and the individual development of the children. Through buying some basic equipment and adopting different techniques to help the children I feel that we have started to make a difference in the school.
Volunteers: Joe Manning from England, Raido Mand from Estonia and Mandy Giebe and Leonore Heldman from Germany.