It's 10.30am on Tuesday morning. I should be up in the bazaar meeting Drubha sir, the Hetauda RP, for the second of this week's follow-up visits to schools to see how the female SMC members who attended our training in January are getting on. At 9am he rang to say he would phone the school and cancel for today. The reason? As you can see - it's raining!
It has been very dark all morning and just after 8.30 the wind got stronger and there was a real downpour. I'd just got the iron out to make sure my kurta was ready, in case the power went off when the phone rang. I know Drubha lives out at Nawalpur, so he has to come into Hetauda by tempo, but if this is what RPs say when it rains, is there any wonder teachers and pupils don't turn up? Or did he say it because there may not have been many people at the school? (On Thursday he told me that whenever it rains, there is always tension -'tension bhayo' is a very common expression when things aren't going right - so it's not worth causing the headmasters more tension by going!)
I'm going to write up yesterday's visits and then continue sorting out the stuff I've started taking to the office for Doreen - it's all over the spare room floor at the moment and Kors is staying tomorrow (bandas, bombs and the Ms permitting). So here is a diary of what one way or the other will be an interesting week.
Because I'm adding this later, I can report that Kors is not coming - VSO have reported the Maoists have called a 3-day banda. I have to say I've found no mention on the web-site of a banda tomorrow - the Ms are going to hold funeral processions for 'monarchy' all over tomorrow and they are threatening a banda 4th - 6th October to coincide with the date for nominations for the elections (and my flight to KTM, the security conference and the marathon). They are also going to hold door-to-door prorammes to explain their cause - no violence - the People's Liberation Army will stay in the camps (no mention of where the Young Communist league are!) There are 10s of thousands of Ms in KTM today, so I'm glad I'm here. Pradipta told me there was a rally in support of the elections in Hetauda today. While that's good, it's possibly also the recipe for disaster if there is opposition to rather than support for the Ms. (It's now Sunday and there was no banda, there have been reports of people being threatened in various places, but not round here, and my DEO has told me not to worry about the banda in October - for what that's worth).
On the other campaign front, when I went up to the bazaar about 5.30 tonight there was a great crowd at the top of School Road - was this the election rally - no just the college students holding a Vote for Prachant march!
So, here is my school diary
Monday
Today's school was a 20 minute tempo ride away through the Hetauda Industrial District - an area I've never been to before - it must have been worth a visit (as it says on the Hetauda Municipality web site) when it was first created - factories in a rural setting with smooth roads-but now most of the units are empty, the grounds overgrown and the roads cracked.
Just before we reached the school the SMC member, Kumari, was waiting for the tempo, so we all got off together and crossed a large football field (with goal posts, cows and goats)bounded by trees. She told us that several years ago she had collected some money and gone to buy several hundred saplings, but the forestry committee had given her more than twice the number. She used her considerable powers of persuasion to muster a group of helpers and the result is a testimony to her commitment.
This woman works for a NGO which supports female victims of violence. She is a political activist (CPN-UML) - but she wants politics to end at the school gate. She has not suffered, but in the past the School Management Committee chairman has been imprisoned by the army and at a recent school meeting,the headmaster was unable to give his report because of interruptions by Maoists. This is no illiterate stay-at-home Nepal mother, but she told me how difficult the role of SMC member is.
She is very aware of what needs to be done and supports some projects financially. She speaks highly of the headteacher and critically of teachers who do not come to meetings (and classes). She is aware of family difficulties and does what she can to mediate in problematic situations.
But how can she get the computers provided by the District development Committee out of their boxes and into a classroom - and when they are there who will teach the students how to use them? How can she find out (except at a very extraordinary meeting like the one we were having)what is going to happen to the underspend this year (an underspend? - exactly).
I had always said that we shouldn't be offering training without knowing all the problems and this was such an eye-opener. If this woman finds the role of SMC member difficult, others must find it impossible. I also began to understand the overriding role of politics, and why, when we held the training, this participant had said 'How can we keep politics out of schools?' - the only question we had not been able to tackle. Labour v Conservative on Redcar and Cleveland Council? - that's nothing!
Unfortunately, by the time we had finished our discussion with the SMC
member and the headmaster, the children were going home - there were less than 50% of them at school - probably some mothers were still celebrating Teej!- so they were dismissed at lunchtime. It gave us time to meet the staff, who were very friendly, and to have a look at the ECD class which is being refurbished. The painting on the walls has been done by the Grade 10 students - what an excellent opportunity for them to show their skills and have a stake in their own school buildings.
After a roti tarkaari lunch we walked ten minutes down the road to another secondary school. This was not one of the schools the RP had chosen to visit, but someone had informed the head that the RP was in the area and he rang during the morning and asked him to call - too good a chance to miss such a rare oportunity.
We observed an enthusiastic teacher at work with his Grade 10 English class - his reason for the students not answering was that they weren't used to speaking English (Grade 10!) My reason was that he never gave them chance to speak - he never stopped! That's really unfair because it certainly wasn't the least effective lesson I've seen, but it included all the things we had been working on with the teachers at Markhu in the summer and just reminded me how much work there actually is to do in classrooms.
The teachers took the opportunity of talking to the RP on a range of subjects and then we were shown the new rooms provided by the German equivalent of DfID and the computer room. This school has 2 computer teachers and offers computer studies as an extra activity to Grades 5 - 9.
Two secondary schools so near to each other - both running with primary staff teaching in secondary classes, one greatly overstaffed in primary level, one with only two female staff (primary).
The RP apologised in both schools that I would not have time to support them (he's just cottoned on that I'm here to support quality education) and as ever I left feeling frustrated for the heads and teachers who know they are doing the best they can for their children, but also know that they would like to do more. I'm also gaining more sympathy for RPs -even ones who don't visit schools when it rains!
Wednesday
Not a school visit today, but the monthly RPs' meeting. I was asked to make a report with Uma and Padma about the workshop in Kathmandu. They are so enthusiastic about what they experienced and keen to carry out the plans they made, I feel as though the opportunity to share with people from other districts has really kick-started opportunities in Makawanpur - hope I'm right, for Doreen's sake.
Thursday
Off to Tuesday's school - right next door to the cement factory. The aerial ropeway to the quarry at Bhaise and to Kathmandu passes directly above the school. The wildly overgrown field in front of the school was a building site - a block has been knocked down and is being rebuilt and a new block containing the ECD (nursery) class has been built.
The ECD facilitator was taking a college exam, so the teacher taking grade 1 had all the childen in the spacious, brightly painted but totally empty room. The little ones were just lying around while some of the slightly older children seeme to be writing and the teacher was checking books. I just wanted get them all up for a song and dance session. I talked to the SMC chair about natural materials for counting etc and he said he had asked the facilitator to give him a list of materials she needed, but I don't know who would advise her and they are so poorly trained (12 days if the money doesn't run out after 8 as it did last year!)
The main purpose of the visit was to talk to the female SMC members - 2 at this school, one a teacher. She was less willing to talk about the school, but she did say the only person who did any work was the SMC chair. The other woman, whose children attend the private school up the road, said she often looks into the school, but she rarely comes in, so the RP encouraged her to take her responsibilities seriously and find out what was happening. This was just the situation I had imagined being able to follow up on a regular basis - at least the RP apologised at every school, saying that it was his fault we hadn't made these visits earlier, but at least they were made and he was able to get a different insight into each school. He knows it's important, but as he pointed out after the umpteenth call to his mobile (ring tone 'Auld Lang Syne'), if he is at schol he isn't in the resource center to see the people who come to see him there - you don't really make appointments in Nepal.
The last school was just round the corner from the office. We arrived later than expected and the SMC member had left to go to a Women's Development Group meeting, but had said she would come back. We spent the time doing observations. We watched an English lesson where the children were learning right, left and straight. The teacher said the children had been out at the front of the class, but they wer just repeating when we were there and the teacher was pointing facing them - confusion or what? We had a good feedback session with her. We also talked to the ECD facilitator who was minding about ten children in the ECD room - because they have to wait for their older brothers and sisters. It's the first time I've seen this happening - usually the little ones just run in and out of classes or go and sit with their siblings - I hope the facilitator was rewarded (unlikely). We also talked to the teacher who used to be the head - I met him when I did a one day training there last year (the other two days were cancelled after jana aandolan). This is a community run school and the SMC had decided they needed a new head (no reasons given and the RP wouldn't say). The new head is a woman ('I'm janajati, I'm Magar')and clearly knows what she wants. The former head showed us all the target figures for test results displayed on the staff room wall and how every child has an individual progress record (all based on test scores, but more than I've seen elsewhere). A school that's making good progress!
When the SMC member returned we had a very good talk with her - she knows about the school, has a good relationship with the staff and is a regular visitor. We asked her about the Development Group and she's obviously very keen to help, but when the RP asked her about her family she was really embarrassed. She said she belongs to a development group, but she has 6 children and she doesn't think that's good. She had only wanted 2 children, but since her husband is an only son, they thought it was important to have a son - he arrived after 5 daughters! All the children are still in education -the eldest is in 10+2 (about 18 years old).
I've just noticed how long this post is, so I'll put the photos in and be done. It is a week later, but I'll catch up with news of visitors and the latest politics over the weekend.
