Better days

Students showed up alas in the first week. There are around 15-20 in 3rd grade and around 25 in 4th grade. The days start off with an assembly conducted by the principal herself at around 7.40 a.m. There are hardly any teachers present at that time. We three fellows are usually the first ones to arrive among the staff. We listen to a naat or qirat being recited, followed by Iqbal's Dua and the national anthem. The students then go to their respective classes. 

On Monday, the kids were made to pick up brooms and clean their own classrooms. Mid-week after the rain, we saw them use brooms to get the water out of their classrooms. There is no peon in the school we discovered and hence such tasks are to be performed by the students. The older students were made to move around furniture from one place to another. The teachers sometimes send kids outside school to purchase drinks for them or get them photocopies. It is sad the way they are being made to do such things.

There is no bathroom in our school either so we don’t know where exactly the kids go to relieve themselves when they ask to go to the bathroom. At times there’s this overwhelming stench in the still air when we sit outside during break. So hygiene is quite an issue here. Often we have to think twice before we shake hands with the numerous students who extend them to greet us in the mornings.

We were assigned our teaching slots and we used them initially to do some investment activities where we had the kids tell us their names, their interests. We taught them what the classroom rules would be and what the consequences of not following them would be. We introduced to them class themes and told them how by the end of the week we'll be conducting a diagnostic test to see what their current level of understanding is. Sometimes we indulged in games with them such as Simon Says or asking them to arrange themselves in a queue height-wise or in alphabetical order in ten seconds. They enjoyed participating. Younger kids who would pass by our classrooms would often stop to watch us. Some of the younger kids whom we don’t even teach actually came up to us and asked us to take their classes. When we asked them why, they'd say because we’re good teachers. We asked them how do you know we’re good teachers? Then they’d say because we’ve seen you in your classes. Little things such as these make our days.

Personally I felt that the 4th graders were slightly harder to handle as compared to the 3rd graders. I had trouble keeping them under control and no matter how many times I did the 5 count or went over the rules, most of them kept causing disturbance in the class. Until one fine Thursday morning when I used the class points technique to manage their behavior. I challenged them to get 5 class points in my class and they became so determined that I felt the change in them was no less than a miracle. The student causing the most racket was eventually silenced as every time he did something wrong it led to the entire class losing points. The glares and annoyed looks on other students' faces finally made him realize that if he made another sound the others would hate him for it. Needless to say, they exceeded my expectations (and I too cheated a little by being generous :p) and managed to get those 5 points.

Once in break I stayed back in the classroom to have a chat with some of the girls. After I'd asked them about how far they had completed their course work and all, they started questioning me. 'Teacher, is any one of the other fellows your sister?' 'Teacher how come the three of you haven't married yet?' I was saved from answering the second question as one of the fellows dropped by to tell me that the principal prefers that the teachers all stay downstairs during lunch break, and not in the classrooms. I went down immediately. Some of the girls treat us with too much respect. They ask to carry our belongings for us. They dust off our clothes, our faces when there's chalk on them. We don't want them to do so but we can't really push them away. 

After school I once made a kid stay back and told him how his behavior had been throughout the class and how he was constantly breaking all the rules we had set. He seemed embarrassed and even apologized for it. When I was done speaking to him I told him to behave better the next day and then ushered him to go home, throwing in a 'khudae paman' (Pashto for 'goodbye'). The expression on his face was priceless! His eyes went wide like saucers and a huge grin took over his face. He was clearly surprised that I could say something in Pashto. The next day as I wrapped up in class and asked my students if they had any questions one of them raised their hand and asked if I was Pathan. Apparently the kid from the day before had told everyone else that I was a Pathan since I spoke in Pashto. I replied saying I was Pakistani and explained how I came to know small bits of the Pashto language.

Towards the end of the week, the principal asked us fellows to use one of the rooms in the new block as our staffroom. None of the other teachers sat there with us and we couldn’t help but feel isolated. It was either because they felt we were spies who were there to tell on them. Or maybe because they didn’t want us to witness them indulging in corporal punishment. God knows. I thought for a while that maybe the principal was giving us preferential treatment but then she too hardly sat with us. Getting a better room to sit in could probably make the other teachers jealous of us and no way can we afford that!

This week we also sent home letters to the 3rd and 4th graders' parents telling them about how us fellows will be teaching their kids now and what our mission is. At the end of the letter was a form which was required to be filled in with the students' contact details. So when the 3rd graders turned in their filled forms, I asked them if they had read out the letters to their parents to which most of them replied in the affirmative. Then I asked them what was their parents' response and they were like their parents said that 'this school used to be bad now it's going to be good, dil laga ke parhna' and 'Achay teachers agaey hain, khoob mehnat kerna'. Hope this paves the way to a strong long-term relationship with our students' parents and in turn impacts the students' performance in class :)