Education and English

Where do we start? there is so much we want to say, more than we can say in one entry but we'll make a start....it's been a full week now since we began our english teaching with ASHA and it's been a steep learning curve. Teaching english doesn't come naturally to either of us but as the week has progressed we have gained confidence and hopefully our teaching is improving! The most difficult part of teaching has been working out what level the children are at. We have found that some of the children have very little english, others are very skillled at reading and writing english but struggle to understand spoken english and lack confidence in speaking in english. The children have shown us some of their school text books which are in english and we have been shocked at the high level of english in these books contain and feel that while they can “read” the text there is perhaps little understanding of the meaning.

We are teaching four classes a day, each lasting one hour...although the timing, like the attendance, start and finish time and whether the class actually takes place at all, are all subject to change at any given second! It can be quite funny really, every class has a slightly different make up of children in it and can range from 4 – 20 children!! The children are keen, eager to jot down whatever is on the board into their jotters and although we don't give homework, some have spontaneously done some extra work between one class and the next, bringing it to us for “marking”. We have a red smiley face teachers stamp which they all love to have stamped on their completed work and it is just so lovely to see their beaming faces as you say “well done” and stamp and big smile on their page. We do wonder if these children get much encouragement or praise at school.

ASHA has placed a real focus on supporting young people in the slums in their education over these last few years and the results are amazing. For the first time ever, young people from the slums of Delhi are accessing further and higher education, many of them now attending university. We met Pinki, a young girl in the slums about to sit her “year 12” exams, the exams that determine who will be able to apply for university, i guess the equivilent of our A-Levels or Highers. These exams are in english which puts children in the slums, who attend state funded hindi medium schools, at a severe disadvantage to those children fortunate enough to be educated in private english medium schools. ASHA provide books to help the children study, organise extra english classes (like ours) and provide mock exams to help the children be well prepared and give them the best chance they can have. We have been impressed as we arrive at the centre each day to find year 12 students sitting on the floor in the centre studying hard. Pinki told us she has “high hopes” of doing well in her exams and wants to go to university to study political science...keep her and her studies in your prayers, she sits her exam on the 3rd of March!