Tim's school trip...

Today I visited a few of the local schools in the area near me. It was a bit of a shock!!

One that I visited was a government school for those who are below the poverty line. When I first arrived I reckoned the facilities were suitable maybe for a school of 400 but 1200 pupils attended it, despite this it only had 24 teachers... Class sizes easily reached up to 120 pupils

Picture trying to teach a class the size of a whole year in a school in Belgium or the UK squeezed into a classroom built for maximum 40 - especially as the class is full of energetic teenagers! In a discussion I had with one of the teachers he said 'the size of the school and the needs of the pupils, there ought to be at least 70 teachers'.

That however does not tell the truth about the facilities: The classrooms were blocks of bare rooms, the classrooms not large enough though for any chairs or desks - the kids did their school work on their laps...

I visited on an exam day to see the pupils doing some important tests. I saw the kids trailing long lines out of the doors of the classrooms into the playground, sat cross legged on the floor in the dust next to where children were playing and running around, all the while trying to answer an important exam paper. As is the norm for India goats, dogs and cows were also wondering around grazing freely - just imagine trying to sit a gcse or A-level equivalent exam sat on the floor outside, surrounded with children playing and goats wandering around you! Then couple it with the fact that we are coming to the end of the monsoon season and at the moment flash storms are common - you maybe sat outside writing a paper, with all mentioned above, under a small overhang of the roof in thunder & rain...

As I say it was a bit of a shock - especially as the students were not moaning or complaining - they just wanted to learn, to do well in exams, to get to a good uni. The fact is that these facilities were what they were brought up with, what they were used to. But most of all they were adamant that a little thing like astronomical class sizes, minuscule class rooms and not even a stray cow during an exam would get in the way of their dream of the money, the job and the all important BMW...



P.s. I have now got a camera to show you all the things that I write about! However at the moment I have no way of uploading photos to the computer off of said cam... but expect photos soon!