DO YOU WANT AN OPORTUNITY TO USE YOUR TEACHING SKILLS IN A SCHOOL IN INDIA WHERE EDUCATION IS HIGHLY APPRECIATED AND CONSIDERED A LUXURY BY THE PUPILS WHO DO MANAGE TO GET ONE?
The HCET was set up in 2007 to support teachers’ wages in 2 schools in the Darjeeling/Kalimpong Hill Region of West Bengal.
The people of this Hill Region are mostly from the Lepcha Tribe and the common Language of the Region is Nepalese. Because the Nepalese Language is not recognised by the Education Authority in India as a teaching language, many of the schools throughout this Region use English.
There are public schools, however parents strive to send their children to private schools because: a) the public schools do not use English as their teaching Language, b) the teachers are not dependable and often send an uneducated substitute to take their place in the class room, c) the pupils who do manage to sit the state board examinations are minimal and often fail and d) there is no official inspection of schools.
Many of the pupils’ parents have not had the opportunity to remain at school after primary level, so are very keen for their children to get a secondary education and for them to continue on in education, in college or university, however this is usually only possible if sponsors can be found for the pupils.
Because of the poor infrastructure of most of this region, there is very little paid employment owing to the underdevelopment of it. The people are very poor money wise but have a rich culture and are hard working.
The teaching language, in the schools which HCET support, is English. The teachers are from the region and their own language is either Lepcha or Nepalese, which they will use out with the school, as many of the villagers do not speak English, hence, they need a lot of practice of speaking English with those who have a good grasp of the language. Their teaching is mostly restricted to text book learning, and the pupils find difficulty in transferring knowledge to subjects unrelated to their text books. The teachers and the pupils are anxious to improve their English.
I shall be visiting the schools for the fifth time in October of this year; I usually spend 3 months there, helping in the schools. I was wondering if there are any teachers due to retire this year or whom may have already retired and you may know, who might be interested in giving even a few weeks of their lives to help the teachers and pupils of St. Joseph’s and St. Stephen’s.
The Trust does not meet the expenses of even me. It was set up to pay teachers’ wages in the schools, so that every child could attend school, whether they could pay the fees or not and to provide essentials for the schools, eg. In 2010 the Trust gave £1,500 for books to start a school library, prior to this there was no opportunity for the people of the area the Trust operates in, to borrow books.
It is very inexpensive to live in the villages, and as there is no commercial entertainment in the Region our 2 schools are in, very little spending money is needed.
If you would like to know more about volunteering to teach in India or if you know someone who may be interested, you can contact me on HCETproject@hotmail.com or paulinemac135@yahoo.ca
For further information: Web address http://sites.google.com/site/hcetproject/
