Extra Lessons

As time drew on, I was getting to know my pupils better and also getting a better idea of their individual strengths and weaknesses. After 3 weeks, it became apparent that, while some children were going to have little difficulty completing the syllabus, there were others who would struggle if something didn’t change. I was loath to alter the syllabus, which I judged was of the right level – apart from anything else, I really didn’t want to leave the brighter kids short-changed – so, in the end, I opted for helping the less able children to get up to speed. I informed all of my children that I would be running extra lessons and asked anybody who felt that they needed more help to come to one of the bigger classrooms after school on Sunday. I really hadn’t counted on the learning appetites of my children and was totally overwhelmed when well over 100 of them turned up on that first night. Obviously, most of the kids did not need to be there and I realised that I’d have to find a better way of selecting out those kids who would benefit from extra tuition. I think many of the kids had come because they thought that I’d be teaching yet more vocabulary, some came because they would rather be at school than at home…and, probably, some just turned up because their friends were going to be there. In the end, I decided that the kids who were getting poor marks in their listening comprehensions were probably the ones who would benefit most…and this would necessitate splitting the extra lessons up by class so that everyone was on the same page. So Monday evenings came to be for class 4’s, Tuesdays for class 5’s, Wednesdays for classes 6 & 7, leaving Sundays and Thursdays for those kids who were really struggling (just one or two students) and needed direct one-to-one tuition.
One further problem created by this system was the absolute need for the children to be doing their own work during listening comprehensions. The classrooms were very cramped – sometimes with four to five children crammed onto a narrow, 5ft bench. Given this close proximity, copying other people’s work was very common and, unfortunately, due to the teaching methods employed, not something that normally bothered the other teaching staff too much. As my entire extra teaching strategy was based on the kids’ weekly performance, it was important for me to know that it was their performance. I started putting bags up on desks between the children’s copy books, splitting up the known confederates and getting some of the better-behaved girls (much to their chagrin!) to sit between some of the naughtier boys. Every time we had a listening comprehension I made a real point of explaining to the kids the importance of doing their own work – you know, the ‘it’s you you’re cheating, not me’ speech. It was a new game for a lot of the kids to play, but I think by the time term was coming to an end most had got the basic concept. Unfortunately, as the exam demonstrated, there was at least one exception.
The extra lessons themselves became something that I’d really look forward to at the end of every day. With fewer bodies to manage and a genuine need for most of the attendees, I was able to enjoy some truly rewarding teaching. Being able to concentrate one-to-one with a student for more than 60 seconds gave me some real, tangible returns – I could actually see them improving in front of my very eyes. These kids – often shy and retiring when surrounded by a classroom full of their peers – started to come out of their shells and often astounded me with their ability to pick up phrases and constructions that had entirely eluded them just days earlier. Each and every one of the kids who came regularly to these extra lessons (for there was always the odd brighter kid who just hadn’t done the work that week) improved immeasurably over the course of 4 weeks. Boys like Udip (6A) and both Bal and Bir (4A) who had no chance of passing any exam when I first arrived, ended up passing comfortably and even surpassing some of their brighter, but more lackadaisical, peers. The extra lessons also gave me the opportunity to identify that Mina (again, from 4A) was actually dyslexic in English…but not in Nepali (a phonetic language). This got me all worked up at first as I couldn’t understand why she was being taught at an English-medium school, where she was unable to read the text books or even understand what she had written. I soon realised that, due to my short-termer status, it wasn’t really up to me to question the whys and wherefores of the situation but simply to get on with it and make the most of the situation.Over the last 3 weeks, with much-appreciated help from Malati (one of my Class 7 students), Mina and I worked really hard on using phonetic representations of English words to allow her to take (and pass!!) her exams.
All of these kids made me immensely proud and these extra lessons even gave me the opportunity to learn to love some of the more annoying and less-respectful little blighters. Often I’d find the hairs on my neck standing on end as I saw them slowly grasping something I was trying to teach them and I would always float out of that classroom – even after a long, tiring day – smiling and thoroughly energised. A few times, particularly after difficult but successful lessons with Mina and Malati, I was moved almost to tears and I thought my heart might break with the sheer joy of seeing that light come on and the smile appear on her face…and for seeing Malati’s selfless generosity towards a girl, who more-often-than-not was pilloried by her less pleasant schoolmates. More than anything else, I think my after-school experiences confirmed my desire to be a teacher. I began to feel a genuine and growing need to coach, to impart knowledge…in essence, to educate.