Learning to learn (Sheila style!)

I’ve just finished being part of a training course for ECD facilitators in Bhaktapur district - after a fairly easy time in past month it was a bit of a shock to work for 12 days in a row, which were only broken by a day of bus strikes and a day hiding indoors during Holi!

Several days were also lengthened by some very long bus journeys home including one when I was on the wrong side of a complete nakajam, a blockade of buses and other vehicles across the main road back into KTM. I got off and walked around it with another bideshi (foreign) female, before finally picking up another bus the other side…eventually!

Some of the trainees have already centres/classes up and running whilst others are about to set them up. The schedule was to include both theory and practical sessions for making resources as these are very limited in Nepal. As I understand it facilitators get 1000rps (about £8.50) to resource their new centres. So these 24 girls and I man (mostly just school leavers) were very earnest about their new role and listen carefully to my colleagues who are giving them the theory (from the new curriculum manual which appears to be really good but of course I can not read the Nepali script and only pick up the technical words that are in English, social and emotional development, thematic approach etc).

After watching some rather subdued trainees on the first day we, Richard (another vol usually based down south in Birgunj who joined us for a couple of days) and I, established that training should be fun and practical so we demonstrated some of the more entertaining and practical parts that is so important for young children - singing and playing, lots of noise and fun. I think they were all are a bit surprised that this short bideshi woman and the towering 6ft4 man can be so enthusiastic, loud and busy encouraging them to play and think themselves in the place of a small child!

Luck for us the experienced trainer was really great, with good knowledge and skills. She even produced ink and string for folding pictures, symmetry etc and some flour so we could make play dough!

And here they are playing a clapping and singing game. The class is in a scout hut - it is bizarre to have a picture of Baden Powell staring down from the wall! It seems that Nepal has a big scout programme and their room in Bhaktapur makes a good place for training and even has electricity between the power cuts, a real luxury!

We really encouraged the trainees through providing coloured card and pens for book making and cloth and scraps for puppets, beanbags and other bags to make books. On the final day they displayed all they’d done - I now expect to see washing lines and string with things hanging across their centres!

It was also great as they seemed to be really empowered through the training and became increasingly able to speak with visitors from the DEO and Bhaktapur municipality about what they were doing. One of the best bits for me was seeing one trainee, who was so quiet when I first met her (in her new ECD centre in the bamboo hut on top of the hill) and on the first day of the training hardly spoke at all, telling the head of the DEO why it was important for very young children to play and how low cost materials like beans, lentils, and other small things could encourage sorting, classifying, extending fine motor control etc. Result!

Of course I can't do any of this in Nepali but luckily for me when talking child development words such as social, emotional etc all are English…

Following this training I have agreed to go and visit these facilitators in their own classes/centres and will be able to do some on-site individual support and coaching. I am really looking forward to this (unless they are very far out and like the class that Geraldine and I walked UP the hill for 3 hours to reach!). It will certainly take me to villages and schools in the district that I have not yet seen and of course it is always great to see any creative learning in practice – with any luck I might get to sharer one or two of these trips with my sister too whilst she is out here (as a tag-a-long ex-Primary teacher it will also be right up her street!).

And I hope this success session will encourage some refresher courses for other teachers and I shall continue collecting ideas for low cost/no cost resources (thanks for the coffee in foil wrapping Ben, perfect for cutting and sticking!).

More news and pix soon – second time lucky and we’re hopefully off to Pokhara this weekend to rendezvous with Gill and Reg who have spent the last few days seeing some other parts of Nepal whilst Roshan and I continue to work.

Best wishes, Sheila x