The second half of this week the children and I (Jennifer) taught English at another school. At first glance, this school looked like it was much more academic and that funds were available to make it a nice and adequate learning environment. The room where we taught contained a computer and television and had a nice tiled floor. On the chalkboard was advanced conversational English and many other signs of English learning. I skimmed through some workbooks and discovered completed pages that showed a high level of English knowledge. I wondered if my current lesson plans would be adequate. As it turned out, the children were not any farther along in their English skills than the first school we had been at. In fact, as I looked around the school later in the week I discovered that only one level of one building looked nice and that the teaching and school schedule was just as lax here as the other schools we had observed and heard about. It seems that teachers are not very motivated to teach and if they are gone their students just do whatever. On Friday four teachers were gone and during our teaching break I did not observe any classes in session. Students were wandering around, drawing on chalkboards and passing the time in whatever way they wished. It has become apparent that school in the village setting is just a motion to go through and not an adequate education. Most students do not graduate from high school in the villages and if they do it may not even be comparable to an 8th grade education in the U.S. It is really sad to see the lack of care for students and their education. Students in these schools don't have a chance to receive higher education because they don't have the knowledge to pass entrance tests for colleges and/or universities.



It was a joy to see the children enjoy learning English. Many students came and watched as we were teaching. In this picture some younger children came in and sat down to observe. Sometimes both doorways and the windows would be packed with students watching the lessons.