The 2015 Students Rebuild Literacy Challenge inspired students around the world to make bookmarks to benefit Save the Children’s Literacy Boost program. Each week during the Literacy Challenge, we introduced you to students and teachers around the world who have directly experienced success through the Literacy Boost program.
Nothing deters Rita, not even a room full of curious and mischievous first graders. Rita is a teacher in grade one in Dhankauli VDC of Kapilvastu district in western plains of Nepal. Every day, she takes her young children in her class on a journey of learning through the walls covered in pictures, story books hanging on a line that runs across the classroom, drawing by children suspended from the ceiling, locally made toys, dance and songs, games and learning materials she made herself.
She is teaching children numbers today. She has developed a chart with numbers and things that represent that number. For example, the number three is represented by drawing of three cups alongside the number “3”. She engages in a discussion with children about how and why they use cups. Children promptly answer that they drink tea from cups. She also encourages children to find synonyms for cups. When its turn to learn about the number ‘four’, she asks the children to count the number of windows in the classroom. There are four windows on the right side of their classroom. In Rita’s class, children not only learn about numbers but also about new words, language and discovering things on their own.
“I do not find teaching these children difficult. In fact, it’s more difficult to stay home doing nothing,” says Rita, who lives an hour away from the school and comes in a bicycle to teach every day. “My students help me in class. When I announce the lesson for the day, children volunteer to bring learning material needed for that class. One of them always keeps the attendance register ready in the class. The best part is when children volunteer to bring water when anyone is sick in the class or needs to take medicine.”
Rita says that she started enjoying her job more when she went on a training to make learning materials. She says that it was like opening a door to so many ways in which she could teach children. She sometimes gathers her first graders and makes teaching materials with them, all the time asking them questions about what things they can make from cutting papers in different shapes and sizes.
She says that learning materials make children creative, makes them more imaginative and when they see the lessons in textbooks turned into something visual, they can understand very easily. Also, Rita uses Awadhi language to speak to her students. Rita speaks Tharu language at home, the textbooks are usually in Nepali or English but she speaks fluent Awadhi so that she can communicate with children in the language they speak at home. She is a bridge for her young wards in switching between languages.
Rita takes great pride in her first graders and the discipline they show in class, even when they are playing games. She says, “I like the beautiful handwriting the children are learning and I like their questions. I hope they help their second-grade teachers like they did to me next year.” Rita keeps track of all her students and their progress. She shares an example of one of her students Anita.
Anita, 8, has been in grade one for almost three years. She has two younger sisters and a brother. Her father is working in a Gulf country as a migrant worker to provide for the family. Her mother works as a farm helper. Anita, as the oldest of three children, has to cook and clean when her mother is not at home. Her father who is home for a few months is worried that Anita has spent over two years in grade one. This year, however, with her teacher Rita’s guidance Anita is making good progress. Her teacher says, “Anita didn’t go to an ECD (early childhood development) center. She started straight in grade one. She has a lot of work at home. In the evening after school, she goes home to wash dishes and cook. She can write and reads Nepali alphabets and sometimes leads the class, counts from one to hundred. She even asks for difficult homework.”
Anita loves coming to school to study. She doesn’t know what she wants to become in the future. She likes counting numbers. She says, “I like my teacher a lot because she loves us.” She likes dancing in the class and her teacher telling stories. Social studies are her favorite subject right now and her favorite storybook is Shiroo which her teacher read to the class. Though she is too young to read complete sentences, she is able to remember the story. Rita says, “It is important that parents encourage children to study like Anita’s parents do even though they themselves never went to school.”
Anita’s father who is back home for a while wishes to support Anita’s education as long as she wants to study but he thinks she should work harder as she has already spent three years in grade one. He says, “I had to go abroad to work so there was no one to look after the children’s education. I buy them all the stationary and books they need. I hope she is able to pass high school.”
With Rita giving attention to children in her class, teaching them without fear of punishment, engaging children in conversation and encouraging them to ask questions, Rita hopes that Anita is able to pass grade one and go to grade two this year.
Rita says, “Grade one is the foundation. If a house doesn’t have a good foundation, it will not be strong. I like teaching in grade one as I get the chance to lay the foundation for these children. I enjoy the time I spend with them. I do not find teaching them difficult.”
Save the Children’s education program works in over 22 districts focusing on improving teaching methods and classroom environment in primary schools. We support teachers through training like the teaching material development training Rita participated in. Teachers also learn about active teaching and learning methods, how to teach without punishing children in the classroom, engage children in conversation about what they are learning, encouraging children to ask questions and create their own teaching materials with locally available teaching materials. Save the Children is also supporting the government in implementing Continuous Assessment System, trains school management committee and supports in building classrooms.
