I’m moving back to Scotland this summer. Antananarivo has been a mixture of joys and sorrows, and while I am very glad I completed a year here, I’m delighted I’m coming home.

I’m back early July and hope to catch up with a few people then. It feels a bit like a miracle, I have a job starting in St. Leonard’s school, St. Andrews at the end of August. Miracle because it is tough finding a teaching job in the UK when abroad, and because I think I’m going to really enjoy the school!

I’m excited to catch up with old friends in Scotland and settle back into Scottish culture. It will be quite a change, just a few thoughts of things that will be ‘new’ to me:

• Traffic lights, we have none here. Will I remember to stop for them?
• Elections that don’t cause the country to grind to a halt. In Madagascar the presidential election date has not yet been set and already there are lots of peaceful protests and strikes here, including hundreds of state schools on strike despite the looming exams.
• Regular social ‘clubs’ to attend. Here after work most malagasy spend hours getting home and few have time for a ‘club’.
• Not having to go to some government office every few weeks to sign a piece of paper or other annoying administration. To give you an idea, here, driving license papers have to be processed in the capital which can be a multiple day journey.
• Being able to have more than a basic conversation with folk on the street.
• Speed limits and speed cameras.
• When riding, not having to watch out for: men pushing carts in the road, vehicles stopped in the middle of the road with legs sticking out into the traffic from underneath, chickens, huge holes hidden by the vehicle in front, motorbikes squeezing in the gaps, ducks being herded, people sitting in the road begging. Drivers here are wonderfully patient, there is rarely a hint of road rage. Can we export that attitude back to Scotland?

Life in the big smoke

Living in Antananarivo has had good bits and bad bits. Here are a few (G=Good,B=Bad, A=amazing)

G After Christmas I rented a simple middle class Malagasy flat near to the edge of Tana. It boasts gorgeous views and sunsets, has outstanding mountain biking nearby and includes a free viewing platform for the Sunday afternoon cockfighting (which is technically illegal to please the international donor community).

B My compound has a 9pm curfew. It keeps me safe at night but means I need to book a cheap hotel for a night out.

G It’s been great to return to classroom teaching with a group of lovely students and a simple science lab.

B Teaching multiple levels at the same time (KS3/GCSE y1/GCSE y2) is exhausting and I’m unsatisfied with the quality of instruction I can give.

G I have 2 sets of 2 wheels, my 10 year old mountain bike from Scotland (which is still a fabulous bike, albeit after a bit of local welding and a few bits tied on with string) and a small scooter. The mountain biking here is world class, as is scooting. Tana is a city for 2 wheels like no other, the back streets are lovely to ride. I was tempted by a real motorbike for longer distance jaunts but the license paperwork is too lengthy. Next time.f[‘

B Friends are scattered across the city and often getting to see them after work is difficult as a result.

A We have developed a wonderful primary teaching course, and trainer book written by a brilliant primary teacher Lara Dikha from Australia. She visited at Christmas and trained a huge number (about 220) of teachers in trainings we organised for her. We are now working on training local trainers to pass on her course. You can find her book for free download at http://mada-enseignants.org

? I haven’t trained nearly as many teachers as that…about 150 in the year.  But overall we trained as many teachers as last year…a wonderful surprise!! A big focus was working with a lovely high end Christian School – ‘Vision Valley School’.

G …instead I’ve been focusing on developing trainers in Antananarivo. So far local trainers in Tamatave have delivered about 80 certificates this year

B Due to plague, very rainy wet season, protests and strikes as we approach the presidential election and the size of the city, Tana schools have not been particularly interested in our training. Though if I’d stayed in Tamatave it would have been much worse. They were badly hit by the plague (despite the species of flea there being unable to carry plague), a cyclone and a couple of tropical storms! Our Tamatave training has been very limited as a result. (Country-wise this has been a very difficult year compared to the easy years in Tamatave)

G Riding to school passing cow drawn carts full of local bricks; buying fresh warm cows milk in fanta bottles; giving scraps to my neighbors pigs.

B I have been sick quite a lot this year, in contrast to last year. Not sure why. Nothing chronic.

G I’ve learnt you can do an incredible amount of development work on a tiny budget. My budget has been about £500 a month for everything. Here, big NGOs often have big value projects that are essential, but other times they spend a lot of money on not so much…

I remember when I came here 3 years ago, it was motivated by IS. I saw how they ruin peoples lives, and wanted to do something opposite to that. I think I’ve been successful in some small way. Sadly it is time to move on and leave local people behind to develop and improve the work.

We have spent a significant amount of time and effort developing courses that connect with local teachers where they are at, in their national language. For teachers who have really connected with our program, they say the results have been transformative.

Looking forward

I’m going to spend a small amount of time managing and supporting the training school while I’m in Scotland. Some key things my staff will be working on here while I’m gone:

• Promoting and delivering courses across Madagascar.
• Supporting trainers delivering courses.
• Selling the books in local bookshops.
• Registering as an ‘association’ in Madagascar.

If you think you would like to be part of what we do in some way (more than the incredibly valuable way you already are, by taking an interest and encouraging me), do get in touch by leaving a comment.

If you pray, you might like to pray for:

• Pray for the local trainers, that they would find joy in what they do
• Pray for the training school project’s success, moving forward.
• Pray for a successful and safe return. There is a lot to organise and I’ve been sick and exhausted in the last couple of weeks.
• Pray for the logistics of the move to Scotland (and somewhere to stay in St. Andrews) to come together

Pictures from the year

INFP and DEFI trainers’ training

A lake in the capital

River crossing near Tamatave

Pirogue ferry near my house

Brick kilns in Antananario

The main road through a bush village

Cycling in the bush near Antanarivo

Camoflage

Leaf tailed gecko – I’ll buy you a drink if you can spot the gecko correctly.

This blog contains

• Observations on return
• What’s been happening in Madagascar
• What next?
• Help me out!

Observations on return

There are many things that strike me about the UK, coming from Africa:

• The UK is oozing with great culture. It seems that everywhere there is fabulous live music, public art and poetry.

Malagasy street musicians playing with homemade instruments. I love the trumpet made out of hosepipe and a funnel

• I don’t have a house full of containers of water for water cuts, nor do I need to carry a torch at night for power cuts.
• Social engagements need to be planned in advance. Ugh!
• Public transport in the UK consists of huge, half empty vehicles that have a timetable. Malagasy transport is small, full vehicles that run when they are full with an office you can telephone to book onto.
• Children with learning difficulties receive amazing help in school. In Madagascar many teachers punish them thinking they are naughty.
• Malagasy culture is wonderfully child friendly. Parents bring children and babies to my trainings, take them to work, and have no anxiety about breast feeding in public.

What’s been happening in Madagascar

Recently, the World Bank published a report ‘Education is Great but a Good Education is Even Better‘. The report is accurate to what I have observed in the education sector and it identifies teacher training as being one of the major issues. It is great to see an international body correctly identifying sector needs.

Recent trainings included 38 trainees from Institute National Formation Pedagogique(INFP) and around 30 Ministry of Education staff. Overall Lili and I trained 145 people in the last 3 months.

Training INFP trainers

Even more exciting, our local trainers did a wonderful job training 42 teachers. We observed some of their training sessions and certified 6 as competent trainers:

Many of the teachers we are training have never had any form of training, and as a result they are seeing significant improvements in their classes. Some comments are:

• Improvement of the students’ performance
• Students are interested in learning and teachers are not tired.
• I have never had any teacher training, so that training has made a BIG difference in my teaching, I am more confident.
• Now, I always differentiate my lessons so, I do not waste time, students are always doing something. I have a good understanding of the importance of differentiation and I learnt different practical ways to do it in my class from this training.

Read more feedback here. Everyone who completed the training would recommend it to other teachers.

We’ve worked alongside an amazing project called Leadership for Life that my friends Tim and Maz have been bringing to Madagascar. The two projects fit together really well – training teachers to be great teachers and great leaders, and then training students to be leaders in their own lives…

So what about the future?

On my last Sunday in Madgascar, I went to church. A lady sat next to me. We chatted and it turned out she is the owner of the British school in Madagacsar. I visited and accepted a 60% FTE job to teach Science, Mathematics and Computer Science up to GCSE level. This is awesome because I wanted to get back into the classroom yet continue to support the teacher training in Madagascar.

Going forward our local trainers will deliver many courses on the east coast of Madagascar and wherever we have an opening.

I am going to be based in the capital this year and will try to develop a team of trainers there, as well as travelling to deliver training and observations around the country.

We are very blessed to have an Australian primary school teacher who has spent a lot of time in Madagascar visiting. She is going to develop a few modules we are lacking specifically for primary school teachers.

I’m also assisting Lili with a project to distribute audio bibles (either on MP3 CD for those with a TV, or SD card for use in mobile phones) to those who cannot read.

Hopefully I will find time to continue studying French and Malagasy as well as helping my friend with a guesthouse.

Can you help me?

Thank you to so many people who have contributed in little ways, from staying friends despite the distance, suggestions of experiments for the science course, chats about areas of education they are experts in, or finances to help with the project. You are making a difference, from wherever you are!

There are many little things you can do to get involved:

• Please keep in touch, I love hearing from people, and really value people who have stayed in touch. Or come and visit!
• I will have a few students (less than 10) in my class studying at different levels from Year 7-10. Currently the lessons are run as guided study sessions; if you have any other ideas about how to successfully teach multi-level (without a ridiculous workload), I’d appreciate some tips!
• If you like to pray, pray for me, Lili, and all the projects we are involved in.
• It would be beneficial to find an umbrella charity in the UK who would be willing to process any gift aid donations. If you have any contacts, let me know!
• I would like to fundraise the project expenses, mostly my local director and translator’s wages. Last year gifts were about £2000, which didn’t come close to covering expenses of living full time in Madagascar and employing a local director/translator. This year I’d like to raise around £2500 to cover staff and project costs.
• Should I fundraise for a salary for myself? If so how much?

1. Tamatave had a bar called ‘ABD Beach’. I thought it a nice variation on ‘ABC Beach’. However Malagasy does not contain a ‘C’, so children learn their ‘ABD’.
2. The Bank of Madagascar has launched a new high value 20,000Ar banknote. This is twice the value of the previous high value 10,000Ar note. This is worth about £5,EUR6 or US$7. The largest UK banknote is £100, US is $100 and Brunei/Singapore is $10,000 (about £5000).  My wallet is not large enough to fit my Malagasy rent into, however many shops cannot find change for 5000Ar.
3. When starting the ‘Modern Teaching Methods 2’ course, I asked how the first course had changed teaching. One student told me she tried to help an ADHD student by giving them a sponge to squeeze. Unfortunately the student ate the sponge.
4. Sometimes locals stare at white people. Recently I caught myself staring at white people.
5. A malagasy proverb: ‘If a tree will make a good boat, it comes from a good bed’.
6. I made my own coconut milk, rather than buying it in a tin. Take an old coconut, have the coconut seller grate the white stuff, boil it in a little water and then strain the pulp through a seive.

7. An idea for trendy cyclists in the UK

8. I realise what I do here is successful because of the grace and favor of God. So many things have just ‘happened’ coincidentally. One example is when flying here in September I found myself sitting next to Tim and Maz who run a very complementary ‘leadership for life’ course. Many teachers have now completed both their and my courses.
9. A woman took our course. After the course her mother commented that home discussions are much more orderly and that her daughter is much more creative…she made a clothes box into a comfortable seat. It’s awesome to see the course has wider effects than I might think.
10. We trained a Physics/Chemistry teacher in practical science. Now his class think he is a magician. This is a problem as magicians are associated with witchcraft here. Maybe I need to include a section on ‘avoiding being burnt at the stake’ when I write the science course book.

If you pray, please pray for clarity about how to lead the organisation forward, and for what I should do next. I need to step back a bit form day to day running and training, but am unsure what to focus on now.

‘Vision without action
is only dreaming.
Action without vision
is only passing time.
Vision with action can
change the world’ – Joel A Parker

The last year has seen vision with action. Now I need a renewed vision.

I’m coming home at the beginning of July. I have no summer plans, though would love to join with some people and do some things…any suggestions?

One of the key points of their ‘leadership for life course’  is that everybody should be a leader, at least in their own life. Many Malagasy complain about things yet do nothing to improve things. Tim and Maz’s course identifies seven ‘poverty mindsets’ that holds people back from succeeding, and helps attendees adopt leadership mindsets instead.

Tim and Maz, leadership taster session at my course in the capital. Tim is hiding…

At the end, trainees are asked to identify something that needs changing in their community, and ‘fix it’. Trainees have some great projects, small and large:

• A lady saw kids in her neighbourhood who can’t go to school because they don’t have stationary and uniforms. She met with the kids parents and donated her old uniforms and bought exercise books.
• Many Christians including church leaders are illiterate. They can’t read the Bible so their teaching is based on what they are told not what the Bible says. Lili will distribute MP3 CD new testaments (£0.10 each), micro SD card new testaments (£2.50). Almost every village in Madagascar has a phone with SD card slot or MP3 CD player. And any cyber cafe can copy a SD card or CD.
• Some projects from my vaza friends (not trainees): https://theschabens.wordpress.com/; https://royalrangersnosybe.wordpress.com/; https://www.facebook.com/helpmg/

And…you too can change the world…let me know what you get up to!

What have I been up to?

Jan – March

• Trained 124 teachers (80 basic course; 25 second course; 14 trainers; 5 science teachers). Positive feedback as always, read some here.
• My trainers trained 23 teachers for the basic course.
• I’ve made significant changes to the book including an extra chapter on phonics. I think we have the first work on Malagasy phonics.
• The trainers guide for the basic course has been significantly clarified and improved.
• We observed in many schools and provided feedback to teachers and headteachers.

April – June

• 2 weeks holiday, hiking in the volcanoes in the Island of the Dodo and travelling with a friend in Madagascar.

Hiking in a former volcano, La Reunion

• Trained in a small school run by a missionary in Nosy Be.
• Trained 31 Ministry of Education and NGO staff in the capital (with about 40 more planned). Some feedback from the training here.

Ministry of Education Training, Antananarivo

• My trainers are training approximately 40 local teachers and rapidly improving in the quality of their training.
• I expect to train around 10 more staff on L1, 50 L2 and a number of extra trainers.
• Preparing the organisation to be self-sufficient when I depart.
• Final tweaks to the trainers guide and book.
• A handful of observations.

Post June:

I’m heading home for a while. While I’m there I’ll:

• Take some time to re-enter into western culture.
• Visit friends and family.
• Continue to work and develop the project, including practical science.
• Plan to return to support the project once a year
• Find some part time/supply work.
• Promote the resources across the development community. What makes them special is they are very practical and suitable for basic classrooms. Much pedagogy material is very abstract, theoretical which doesn’t work with African teachers.

How can you help me?

• Do you know any paid job in international education development or science teaching that might fit me. Looking for part time right now as will still have a significant amount of project work to do.
• Do you want to continue to support the project after June? I will be still paying my country director and have an annual visit to Madagascar – perhaps you can help cover those?
• Perhaps we will setup as a charity. Would you consider being a trustee? Or maybe we should join an existing charity?
• Do you know any charities or organisations that may find our training resources useful?
• Pray for me and the project.
• Find a successful pioneer project (not a large charity, just a guy doing something new and adventurous on their own), and support them financially or practically. Everyone I know who does pioneer ‘projects’ suffers from a lack of funding…contrasted with those working for the big NGOs who have a good salary…
  

  Cyclo pousse carrying foam. One of the better paid manual labour jobs in the country (£2-5/day), riders come from all over the country to work in my city.

Walking in the gates was a surprise. The teachers were excellent on the training course, and I was expecting a ‘posh’ school with a few 4x4s dropping kids off and a stream of pousse pousses (cycle rickshaws).

On arrival we found all the children walk to school and the well kept classrooms consist of simple benches and desks for 60-80 students and a large blackboard. There was a library, a school laptop and printer.

As usual the teachers put on a ‘show’ for the visitors, however it was clear that the children were getting a good education by local standards and many of the ideas from our recent course were being put into practise.

Chatting to the head he told me the fees are 5000 Ariary (£1.25) month. And he proudly told us the school is 100% self sufficient and pay their teachers a fair salary. I was astonished. With around 12 classes in the school that means their entire income is around £750/month. This income pays the 14 staff, looks after their buildings and is paying for the construction of a new classroom. There are no cleaners (children clean the school as part of their duties), and occasionally there are breaks in the school year for children to deep clean the classrooms…

In Tamatave most private schools charge much more yet seem no better.  The director commented ‘if your heart is not for money than you can do a lot with very little’. Sorry no photos as local law means it is unwise to publish photos of children in schools.

Science teaching here is very theoretical. Part of my project is developing practical science resources in schools with zero resources and money. Some examples of practicals we have shown teachers:

• Making electric circuits using household and motorbike components. (cost £1-2 for components, reusable)
  

  Electric circuit building using local components

• We demonstrated a red cabbage indicator (that changes from pink in an acid to green in an alkali) – teachers were unbelievably excited. (cost 25p for part of a red cabbage)
• Using Archimedes principle to measure the mass of a floating object. (cost: zero, using medicine measuring cup and any floatable object)
• Making a measuring cylinder out of a plastic water bottle (cost:5p)

A simple balance using marbles weighed at a jewellry shop as weights

Electrolysis of sodium chloride using electrodes from batteries and red cabbage as an indicator

• Rolling a marble down a ramp and then horizontally off a table. Use carbon paper to mark the impact position. Many calculations can be made to do with the projectile motion, resulting in the calculation of the time of flight, initial horizontal velocity, kinetic energy, change in potential energy, work done by friction and average frictional force. Cost: 10p
• Observing the rate of reaction of sulphuric acid (car battery acid) with different metals. Zinc is extracted from batteries, aluminium from a drinks can and an iron nail is used. Cost: 50p
• Collapsing can demo. (use a discarded beer/soda can – free, cost: 3p for charcoal)
• Heroes engine using a coke can. (2000Ar, £0.50 for the can, reusable, 3p for charcoal)

So…do we really need complicated expensive things in life??

(In case you are wondering, this week we have graduations, and after a brief holiday the main ‘modern teaching methods’ courses will start again, this time delivered by local trainers. More on that in another post. Pray all the good plans for the future come to fruition…)

Buying bananas in a village

Starting at 2pm we carefully laid the trail, placing strips of paper on the grass verges along the route. Many locals were curious, what were we doing and why? Some begged to be given these slips of paper and were over the moon with their present.

On the way out we realised we had a problem. We caught some children collecting our strips of scrap paper and coming back along the ‘in’ trail could only a few papers remained.

Jackfruit

Luckily the turnout was poor so we had a guided walk in the bush rather than a proper ‘hash’. On the way a local pousse pousse (cycle rickshaw) driver joined us and talked incessantly about teaching in Malagasy. How did he know I was a teacher? Eventually I saw a strip of paper I’d laid earlier in his hands, he was reading part of my shredded teaching book!

Moral of the story: Use flour and hash where there aren’t villages…

Regarding the real reason I’m here…this week we began training about 50 teachers on the ‘Modern teaching methods 1’ course, 20 teachers on the ‘Modern teaching methods 2’ course and around about 10 trainers. I’m very excited about the trainers course.

While numbers are not huge I’m happy to have a very enthusiastic and motivated group of teachers, and smaller numbers mean we can invest more in individual teachers through observation and mentoring.

So I thought I’d try and write more, shorter posts when I have something interesting to share. Does that work for you or did you prefer the longer ones?

Scroll on and find:

• Pictures from the last few months.
• Statistics and feedback from the last 5 months of the project.
• Read about what I’m doing next.
• Read about how you can help.

Teaching at Lycée Jacques Rabemananjara

Graduation ceremony, Toamasina.

Old brick walls, rice paddies and the capital of Madagascar.

Teaching in IDEAL school, Tana

A happy graduate

Graduation at IDEAL, Tana

A gorgeous car for the airport run.

A happy graduate

Active learning

The next best thing to walking on water…

Day off by the Pangalanes canal

Mountain biking up the pangalanes

Back home with the snow

Review of the past 5 months

Lots happened!

• I wrote the book ‘Modern Teaching Methods‘
• ‘Modern Teaching Methods’ was translated into Malagasy.
• Delivered 8 ‘level 1’ teaching courses comprising of 15 hours of tuition and 3 assessed homework tasks. 6 students achieved Distinction, 117 passed and 31 received attendance certificates. All received a course textbook. I estimate at least 10,000 children are receiving better education as a result of this course. 
• Delivered an experimental level 2 teaching course and awarded 7 attendance certificates.
• Distributed 40 course textbooks to teachers who did not complete the course.
• Started a relationship with the local Ministry of Education.
• Attended a national education conference in Antananarivo organised by ACSI, meeting schools across Madagascar who are interested in the training.
• Provided critical feedback to 4 school leadership teams that will help them improve their schools.
• Supplied the trainers notes and course to an experienced western teacher in Antananarivo who is running the course with a school.
• Observed lessons in 5 schools and provided feedback to teachers.

Course evaluation is difficult because Malagasy people like to say nice things about you. However many of the schools and teachers we worked with have enthusiastically engaged with and implemented the course ideas. Well trained teachers say they knew much of the theory but did not know how to put it into practice until they did this course. Many untrained teachers implement ideas from the course and report improvements in their classes. However some less well educated teachers struggle find the course content too difficult and as a result don’t apply the ideas in their teaching.

Responses from a questionnaire from teachers in 3 schools can be found in this document. Evaluations from other schools are similar and are available to project donors on request.

A few common points in the feedback:

• ‘We love it. It improves our way of teaching’.
• ‘Active learning: It engages all the students’. (didactic  where students watch the teacher teach and copy down what is written on the board is the norm in Madagascar)
• ‘Learning difficulties’. (not even the government teacher trainers had heard about learning difficulties)
• ‘Loved the whole course’.
• ‘Make it longer’
• ‘Better results’
• ‘The relationship between teacher and students has improved.’
• ‘Better attendance’
• ‘Students are more interested in the lessons’
• ‘Good translation’

And a few more bizarre points:

• ‘Active learning is a problem because the students need the toilet more often.’
• ‘The students run away when they see the teacher approaching.’

I observed the lessons of a variety of teachers. Some enthusiastically implemented the ideas from the course and saw a big improvement in their lessons. Others had very weak lessons and had made no changes.

As a result of classroom observations I modified the course to include differentiation (designing lessons so that pupils of different abilities can benefit) and also rewrote a number of chapters in the book. I will also rewrite the Level 2 to helping teachers implement ideas from the Level 1 course.

Charging a small amount for the course was very successful as it means we train interested and enthusiastic teachers who want to learn.

What am I doing now?

December

• Redrafting the book.
• Preparing Level 2, trainers and science course
• Holiday and seeing friends

Jan-March

I’m going back! I leave on the 8th of January for a further 6 months!

Main goals

• Work towards the project becoming a locally run, self-sufficient project by June.
• Train 150 teachers in the Level 1 course. Run less courses with more teachers in each course.
• Run a Level 2 course helping students to apply the ideas from the Level 1 course, teaching critical thinking and a few other concepts.
• Continue to observe and feedback to teachers in local schools, focusing on teachers taking part in the Level 2 course.
• Run a trainers course, which teaches trainers to deliver the Level 1 course. Trainers will pair up and deliver courses to those they are connected with. It is possible we will hire trainers in future.
• Launch version 2.0 of the book ‘Modern Teaching Methods’ in English and Malagasy.
• Work with the Ministry of Education to train their trainers and produce a simplified course that would be suitable for teachers working in rural areas who are often poorly educated.
• Promote the book more widely in areas that it suits, including across Madagascar, to friends working across Africa and to ACSI.
• Produce a simple trainers guide in Malagasy for trainers to work from.
• Raise £6800 to pay for this phase of the project.

Minor goals

• Improve the http://www.mada-enseignants.org website to link provide links to online resources. Most teachers do not have internet access so this will only help a few.
• Develop a practical science course introducing teachers to very low cost (<$1) class experiments and demonstrations.
• Provide software  that helps teachers improve their subject skills and use any information technology resources they have more effectively.

These goals may change, significantly depending on what happens on the ground.

April-June

These plans will change. The main goal is to prepare the training school to run without involvement from me:

• Help the trainers from the Level 1 course deliver the courses independently.
• Deliver courses across Madagascar.
• Establish a self-sustaining training school teaching basic training skills in Tamatave, Madagascar.
• Fundraise if required for a continuation of the project.

The Team

Currently I’m the project director and I have an excellent deputy project director and translator, Lillianah. I hope the team will grow to include a few local teacher trainers.

The expat community in Toamasina that is involved in development work provides support, advice and contacts also. The readers of this blog have also provided practical and a little financial support for this project, thanks so much!

God often encourages and leads me, through bringing the right people into my path or through many other surprising things that happen. He is very much part of the team.

Longer term thoughts

What should I do after the next 6 months? It will become clear I’m sure but ideas are…

• Scale the project up across Madagasacar?
• Work on delivering a much simpler training program to improve educational outcomes in the bush?
• Take the project up to other countries?
• Go home?

Can you help me?

I really appreciate everyone who has helped in small and large ways. Thanks. Some things I need help with at the moment:

• I spent a lot of time writing the course and would love to share it with others in international development or education. If you know know people who are involved please send them a link to the teacher training book and ask them to get in touch for training resources: http://mada-enseignants.org/modern-teaching-methods/.
• I will be in Reunion in early April for a new visa and would love an adventure holiday buddy. Or if you prefer some time adventuring or being involved in a project in Madagascar I can manage that too!
• If you like to pray, pray for me and the project’s success. Pray for health, safety and God’s leading in the project and my life. Pray also for wisdom as to what to do. Should I develop into a real NGO or stay small, simple, responsive and flexible? If an NGO, I need you to be my trustees, fundraisers etc! Most Malagasy are married and it’s hard to make friends who have time and can speak a common language. Pray for good relationships.
• The next 7 months of the project will cost around £8000, ask for the budgets. The previous 4 months cost £4500 and course charges and donations raised £1730. Would you consider fundraising or donating? PayPal (https://www.paypal.me/RobertMacGregor) is easy. £20 trains one teacher. For larger donations contact me: rather than giving lots of money to PayPal in transfer fees a bank transfer is better.
• Are you an illustrator? If you’d like to add any images to help with understanding of the book, let me know.
• Go out an make a difference in the world. Work out how to change the world for better. There has always been a lot of rubbish going on in the world, but if we don’t work to change the rubbish nothing will improve and evil people will get their way. Not sure what to do? It’ll probably involve playing to your strengths and sacrificing some of the wealth of this world. http://www.craiggreenfield.com is always an inspiration, even if you don’t share his faith.
• Talk to me. I love hearing from you. Send a comment or talk to me.

It’s Finished!

Last time I wrote we were working on the final draft of the English and Malagasy of ‘Modern Teaching Methods’. Optimistically I thought the book would have been ready a long time ago, however the final revisions, proofreading and corrections took days of work!

Celebrating the finished book with my translator at a local kebab and pate (pasta) restaurant

So what was the point of 3 months of work writing the book?

Firstly, it helped me think in depth about the course content. As a result the courses I’m teaching now are much more refined and high quality.

Secondly it’s is an excellent reference for local teachers once they’ve finished the course.

However the main reason for writing the book was to give a resource for local teacher trainers to use as a basis for their courses.

You can read it here:

• Malagasy:  fomba-fampianarana-moderna-1-0 (3.0 MB)
• English: modern-teaching-methods-1-0-english (2.26 MB)

Comments, corrections and suggestions are welcome.

Shortly the website http://www.mada-enseignants.org will be up and running for teachers from Madagascar. It will include the latest version of the book to download and a number of other web resources. Additionally a facebook page and group will be added as many people here think the internet and facebook are the same thing…

Classes

Classes focus on giving teachers experience of active, engaging lessons. They also include a lot of theory that can help teachers understand what they are doing.

Active learning activity with teachers

I’m teaching 133 students at the moment and expect to teach two more courses. Teachers must attend 8 out of 10 sessions and complete four homeworks to a good standard to pass the course. Those who don’t pass will still receive an attendance certificate for the sessions they attended. The subsidised cost is £3.50/student and includes the course book and certificate. The real cost is nearer £25/head.

Classes have been going well. I’m encouraged that most teachers feel the course is worth attending (and are willing to put their money and time into it). Teachers are really enjoying more interaction with their students in class and include more active learning. Initial evidence is that teachers who implement the course ideas see improved exam results and student motivation.

Since the book has been finished I’ve started observing lessons in schools and I was very encouraged by a school where teachers are embracing the active learning style. Teaching has moved from a very didactic style to a more active style, with support for the change at all levels in the school.

School day in Madagascar

The school day in Madagascar is really long! To give you an idea, many secondary schools have a morning session from 7:30 – 11:45 (4 hours teaching, in 2 periods), and then from approximately 1:30-5:30 (another 4 hours teaching in 2 blocks). Wednesday and sometimes Friday is a half day. Not all of that time is taken by lessons, there is usually a little ‘study’ time where students waste time and chat.

A few interesting things from schools:

• ‘James, write down the names of people who are talking’, as a behaviour management strategy. Managing classes of up to 100 pupils where the teacher spends quite a bit of time with their back turned writing on the blackboard is a challenge.
• ‘Copy the two French sentences from the blackboard. Ask your friend to check to see if you made any errors. Then rewrite the bits you got wrong.’ This is a 15 minute activity in a lesson.
• Dictation, where the teacher reads the ‘lesson’ to the students and they copy it down. The ‘lesson’ is what students write in their notebooks, not the two hour period students are in the class.
• The ‘lesson’ is in French, while the explanation is given in Malagasy in many secondary schools.
• Students are naughty, though the extremes of bad behaviour are not seen as these students will have dropped out of school.
• The national anthem is sung  as the flag is lowered at the end of the week.
• Students with more serious learning difficulties are not seen in school because they have dropped out. There is no understanding and support for learning difficulties here.
• In many schools, teachers turn up for lessons when they feel like it. In some bush schools the office that pays the teacher’s wages is a few day’s walk away. So every month the teacher is absent for at least a week to collect their wages.
• Many students drop out when moving from primary to secondary school as secondary school is taught in French, a language that many students do not know. Primary schools are supposed to teach French but the reality is that many primary teachers do not know more than a few words of French.

The future

One of the aims of the project was to train teacher trainers to deliver this course. This requires teachers to have completed the course, and as a result it is unlikely I’ll be able to deliver this objective before Christmas.

So I am considering whether to return and continue the project, or attempt to support teacher trainers from the UK while working part time.

Pray I know what is the right thing to do!

One other story…

After moving house I struggled to find my normal washer lady. Clothes are washed by hand here and I’d rather provide local employment than spend half a day washing clothes. I prayed I’d find her and went hunting near my old house. I failed completely and was on the way home and felt I should ride up a small side street. I found a shop selling local yoghurt and bought a pot. While eating it a lady came along with reasonable French looking for work. She is now my washer lady!

Help out the project:

• I’m looking for a book on educating children aged 4-8. If you know one you think is outstanding, let me know!
• If you pray, please pray for continued safety and health. I’m more healthy here than when in the UK at the moment. Also pray I know what to do after Christmas.
• Get in touch! It’s hard to stay in touch when overseas but I’d love to hear what you are up to…
• Get in touch if you’d like to support the project or donate via Paypal at http://www.paypal.me/RobertMacGregor.

A beautiful malagasy backstreet. The wall on the right is made of woven bamboo.

A beautiful malagasy backstreet. Only the main roads are tarmac.

Moving house by pousse pousse (cycle rickshaw). Most of my stuff and my translator is on this rickshaw!

Arriving back in Madagascar I had a wonderful Malagasy welcome. After 24 hours of traveling I sat down to a bottle of Fresh and local zebu (local beef cow) samosas outside the airport.

The petrol station outside Antananarivo airport is a great place to drink fresh, eat samosas and wait for a lift.

I was picked up and driven to a school that teaches local children in the medium of English. I’ve wanted to see it since I met Gavin, an enthusiastic South African in Tamatave a few months earlier. Much of what happens in Madagascar is Mora Mora (slowly slowly), but this school had been built in 20 weeks and the first day had just finished. Construction wasn’t quite finished but the school is very functional and the buildings will be superb in a few weeks. Seeing the familiar faces of Gavin and Lindsay was a wonderful welcome to Madagascar. Read about the school at http://visionvalleyschool.com/

After a few hours there we drove to the night bus to Tamatave. Traffic in the capital is bad, it took well over an hour to go a few kilometers to the bus station.

The main road between the main port in the country and the capital is usually well maintained and I’d planned to arrive about 1:30am. Unfortunately the the road has developed lots of holes over the rainy season which made it a slow journey arriving at 3:30am.

Since arriving here I’ve been settling in to my accommodation and unpacking. Teaching starts next week. Some things you may be interested in about land life.

View from my house. Tamatave has a lot of trees

My washing lady hand washes clothes and then uses a metal iron heated over a charcoal fire for ironing. The price you agree is without the cost of soap and charcoal…I had to buy that for her for £0.25.

I love that I can ride around on a battered old bicycle with stuff tied to it and nobody looks at me funny. One bicycle mechanic told me I have a ‘tsara be’ (very good) bicycle… I would be embarrassed to be seen with it any UK mountain bike centre now. What does that say about our consumer culture in the UK?

Western and local luggage

You also need to pay tax to ride your bicycle on the roads. A tax ‘disc’ (vignette) costs 1000 Ar (£0.25) for the year. If stopped by the traffic cops, you need to have this or be very charming, pay a bribe or pay a fine. Obtaining it was fun, in the town hall you go to a little window and show your purchase receipt and pay your money. The council staff member fills it in. After you have to go downstairs to the police department and a studious man fills in the details in a big thick book before adding another signature and stamps to your vignette and purchase receipt.

Vignette-tax for my bicycle

The town hall is a nice new building that is pleasant to visit. The city has a population about 300,000 and you can see it in the picture below. What is remarkable is the goat herders with their goats on a muddy track right next to the town hall. For most green areas, instead of paying grass cutters people graze their animals.

Goat herders and the town hall

I love local shopping here. Just outside my house is a tiny kiosk which sells fresh baguettes in the morning and a few other odds and ends. Within a few minute walk are numerous stalls selling vegetables, meat and fish. My favourite beach in Tamatave is five minutes walk away and I can sit and eat delicious deep fried cakes at a local stall while watching the fishermen.

Street view in Tamatave. Cycle rickshaws (pousse pousse), moto (similar to mine), and beautiful old ‘giant’ bicycle

I have 3G internet here that costs more than the monthly wage of a labourer.

I have a dog for company for the first 6 weeks. I’ll not get lonely, and enjoy her company. However she tried to chew through an electric cable today so I have to kick her out when I’m working and can’t watch her. I feel bad…

My new companion. She has learnt to play ball very well!

Next week is all about getting the teacher training project off the ground. I’ve already met with a few key people and it looks ready to go:

• More than half of the schools have reconfirmed the courses. Not all schools are back from their holidays which means we will have to confirm with them next week. I have extra schools I can squeeze in any gaps in the program.
• Next week I hope to start with 3 afternoons of training teachers at the local SOS childrens’ village. they have been on holiday so hopefully they are still interested in a course!
• I’ve been asked to run two short (2 day) courses in local bush shcools and in Antananarivo.
• The teaching book is finished, read copy here. Note this not quite the published version and may contain a few errors or instructions for the translator. Please let me know if you see any errors or typos. The malagasy version will be available shortly too. Make a donation if you find it useful – I suggest the cost of a couple of coffees – this will support the project.
• I’m incredibly grateful for all the encouragement I have received over the summer since my last blog post.  Thanks for being in touch, messages and calls etc… Also thanks for those who have been able to give…, I’m about halfway to my projected cost!

If you’d like to help out in any way:

• Offer to take a chapter or three and proof-read the English version. (Contact me to coordinate!)
• Consider fund raising or a donation towards this project. Donate via paypal http://www.paypal.me/RobertMacGregor or save the transfer fees and ask for my bank account details.
• If you fancy visiting in the next 3 months…get in touch. Flights around £600, low cost once you arrive.
• If you like to pray, please pray for continued success, safety and good health. So far my health has been excellent, and as I enjoy cooking the diet is brilliant here.

I’ll post again soon with more details of the teacher training project once it has properly started.

Veloma! (Bye!)

(Robert MacGregor Teacher training centre)

A month ago I packed my life into a few bags, said goodbye to my crewmates and friends and headed into our port city in a landrover.

Lots happened in the preparation for departure. Students sat their final exams and achieved pleasing results. I tidied up the science department, ordered new toys for the new teacher and secured for sea. The hospital and land buildings were packed up and stowed for sea, and our vehicles lifted onto deck and secured. Lots of people left and our fine year 12 students graduated.

Graduation on a ship.

Wesley (above) who has lived almost his whole life on ship graduated and is off to the USA to study next year. Bendik returned from Norway to complete his second last year of study with his best mate Wesley, and will finish school in Norway. And Annabelle is returning to Australia for a gap year.

Something beautiful was growing in the ashes of my time on MercyShips. A lunchtime conversation with a day crew translator sparked an evening class for local teachers. 9 weekly sessions covered some key information for teachers with no training who had experienced a life of didactic teaching. Some topics included: What makes a good teacher, what is the purpose of education, active learning strategies, how people learn, critical thinking, Bloom’s taxonomy (with a focus on practical ways of bringing higher order thinking skills into the classroom), evaluation, formative assessment and feedback, preparing for exams, extracurricular activities, learning difficulties, parental involvement, lesson and course planning and classroom management.

For a trained teacher these things are pretty basic. But in Madagascar, many teachers have no initial training. Many primary teachers have never passed the final secondary exam, all they need to do to teach is pass the exam (50%=pass) at the level they are teaching. Didactic teaching (teacher lecturing and pupils copying) rules. And the drop out rate, particularly in rural communities is huge. Approximately 3% of students pass the equivalent of 3 AS-level exams compared to around  45% in the UK. (source). Many don’t even complete primary school. Not all of this is due to the education sector but better teaching will enable students to achieve more. I also hope to help teachers prepare students for real life by teaching skills and values that will help pupils succeed.

Graduation on land – a student sharing what he had learnt during the course

At the graduation ceremony I was deeply moved when students shared what they’d learnt. I worried students had learnt and implemented nothing from the course and teaching had been a waste of time. Some of the things they shared were:

• My classroom is a lot calmer now I understand that some pupils have learning difficulties and I get less frustrated with them.
• Students are more engaged in lessons now that I use active learning techniques like group discussions, fist to five, or having groups solve problems on a slate (mini-whiteboard but with chalk) to actively engage all students in class.
• I have a better understanding of how to prepare students well for exams to ensure they get the best possible results.
• I use my understanding of Bloom’s taxonomy to have tasks or questions in which students need to use higher order thinking skills to answer.

Once disembarked from the ship and having signed off articles (that pledge your allegiance to the captain etc…) there was little time to recruit schools for the next stage of my vision.

I planned to offer 10-week (1 session/week) training courses for teachers in Tamatave. But I only had a day and a half to recruit schools.

Working with my wonderful translator and a variety of other friends we’d met through the initial course we started to visit schools.

One by one…they said yes to training. However we were left with 2 schools that I really felt we should work with but had forgotten to arrange a visit to see the principals of.

Driving along the road we saw a familiar lady doing her shopping. We stopped to say ‘hi’ and she jumped in the car. Only then we realised we had intended to meet up for her to introduce us to the principals of both schools. She made introductions and we have training courses setup with those schools.

I see the hand of God in all this, the success of the first course, the enthusiastic reception from all the schools and the chance meeting with one important contact…it’s very exciting!

I expect to train 150-250 teachers between September and December.A little information about the teachers I’ll be training:

• A Christian school with the vision for 60 new schools across Madagascar in the coming years.
• A leading Catholic school, which obtains some of the best exam results in the city. Catholic schools are second only to the very expensive Lycee Francaise schools in Madagascar.
• A secular school which houses and educates hundreds of orphans.
• A ‘pricey’ ($30/month) private school that wishes to improve the quality of its education.
• An open ‘level 2’ course for teachers who completed ‘level 1’ course.
• An open ‘level 1’ course held in a small christian school for anyone who is not able to attend the other courses.
• Some other weekend or short courses in more rural locations when the opportunity arises.

While training is important…it’s even more important to leave something useful behind after I leave. I’m working on producing a malagasy language teacher training guide. I also hope to leave behind a few teacher trainers who can earn a living wage from training teachers in the city and surrounds. Hopefully we can produce some online videos of the training too.

Help

You can help by:

• Keeping in touch. I love hearing from friends, even if I’m run off my feet and struggling to write. Or pop in to see for yourself what I’m doing in Madagascar between September and December (travel from the UK is about £700).
• If you like to pray…please pray for everything to work out God’s way.
• Please consider financially supporting this programme. I estimate £20 will train 1 teacher. I’m looking to raise my expenses which will be around £3500.
• If you’d like to donate to this project, go to http://www.paypal.me/RobertMacGregor. Or save transfer fees and ask for my UK bank details. Surplus gifts will be used to continue the programme or be given to the wonderful HELP madagascar.
• If you know of any grant making organisations that would support work this, or you have experience writing grants, get in touch.
• If you want to be part of a small, low key support team back in the west, let me know…I’m not sure what this will look like at the moment!

Further reading

• Craig Greenfield’s blog on cross cultural work is outstanding: http://www.craiggreenfield.com/. In particular check out http://www.craiggreenfield.com/blog/empowerment 
• http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/ – website of one of the schools I’ll be training in.