I’m back in the UK! It would be lovely to see you if you are around in Edinburgh or nearby in August.
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?