The Lack of Educational Resources
25 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
Brandon and I were invited to observe an English class at the college the other day. While we had wanted to do this, we were invited because our Associate Peace Corps Director (APCD) kind of got us looped into doing it (more details to come in the next blog). What we saw was pretty depressing but really admirable. There are NO resources to enrich students’ learning nor are there resources for teachers to improve their teaching. Unbelievable! The only “textbook” that they have is simple and has numerous mistakes. The teacher (who’s class we visited) rely on other resources (loaned by our Education volunteer) to supplement his lessons. Furthermore, he uses the only copier (an out-of-pocket expense purchased by the director) to copy his lessons (they pay 5UM/paper). How depressing is that? In addition, the class sizes are really big here (ranges of 50 students and up). Try having 50 adolescent girls screaming “teacher, teacher” and snapping their fingers at you for two hours. It will probably drive you nuts.
I’m amazed that students are still committed to learning. Furthermore, I’m impressed that the teachers are still teaching!!! Anyways, it’s pretty depressing to see this knowing that we (the US and other “developed” nations) have the ability to change it. The access to education (and the resources) should be a human right. Everyone should be able to have an education if they want one. It’s really frustrating to see the amount of money spent on wars while millions of children are without an adequate education or educational resources to attain a sustainable and healthy life. I honestly believe that education is one of the only ways to end the cycle of poverty as well as the other social injustices in the world. So it’s pretty depressing to see people who want to get an education or to teach other people but are unable to do so because they lack the educational resources.
I guess I’m going to start researching ways to get educational materials to this country. So far, the country (in general) has received donated books (organized by a PCV). But there is so much more that we can do – especially for the teachers. If you have any ideas, please send me an email.
