A Frustrating Day at work!

A Lovely lady on her way to work

  Last Thursday I went out to one of my village schools and arrived at about 7.30. My first stop was the Preschool where the twenty three children ranging from 5-6 year old's were just playing around in the class. Where is your teacher? I said and they turned their hands in a twisting gesture which means "I don't know" I went into the kitchen where the canteen lady was hacking the chicken with her cleaver knife. "Where is the teacher ?" I asked. "Canteen" she replied. So I left her in charge of all the children and went off to find him. There he was sitting down tucking into his mee goring and after he had finished his leisurely breakfast he eventually wandered back to class. After Preschool I set off to the Primary 1.2.3 classes where I was going to observe and help the two teachers. I walked past year 1- no teacher, then year 2 - no teacher and finally Year 3 -no teacher. There were no teachers in the staff room and you can probably guess where they were - yes the canteen! They had given all the children a Malaysian flag to colour in and left them. I have to say that the children were all being very good and seemed happy enough doing their colouring task. So I went to the canteen again and asked the other teachers where were the English teachers. They thought one was on holiday and the other was doing a course in KK. but there was the news that another English teacher had joined the school this week. We have been waiting for months for this teacher so I went off in great anticipation to meet her. I greeted her and asked her how she was and the first thing she said was I'm sorry my English is very bad. Oh dear I thought......

The wonderful view from the school

  Eventually I decided I would go to another school as nothing much was going on at this one. As I was driving along I recognised one of the English teachers feeding his fish along the roadside." I thought you were supposed to be in KK at a course! " "Oh"  he said " Yes I'm going.  I'm just taking my time. I'll be there for the afternoon."

 So that about sums it up - everyone just takes their time and I'm afraid it is the children who suffer. I would like to say that this is not a typical day but it is not that unusual in the rural schools and I feel that the children are not given an equal chance from the beginning.