Yes Madam

In teacher Urmila Jaisi’s classroom in robot-like discipline has been replaced by group work, creativity and many more smiling children.

By Line Wolf Nielsen

20. June 2005

Previously when Urmila Jaisi were teaching the alphabet she used to make the children repeat the name of the new letter, followed by a “yes, Madam!” Now, however, she has abandoned that practice.

The change in her ways of teaching is a result of two weeks of training in April 2004, conducted by MS Nepal partner BASE-Bardiya. After more than a year of contemplating and experiencing the new methods, Urmila Jaisi is a more confident teacher.

”I really learned a lot and especially the new method aiming at younger children has proved very useful. I’ve learned that all activities should be centered on the active participation of the children and I am no stranger to organising group work anymore,” she says.

These days she no longer believes the children will learn anything from repeating her teaching with a ”Yes, Madam!”

”I believe children are easily bored if everything is conducted from the pages of a book and I can see, that their learning is enhanced if I make use of music and singing,” she tells.

Whenever the children have to learn the spelling of new words Urmila Jaisi have begun to bring objects to put on display – it’s more active than just pointing on a picture poster. “The fruits and sweets are very popular, because we eat them afterwards,” she grins.

32 year old Urmila Jaisi has been a teacher in for the last 15 years. She lives in the Mid-Western district of Bardiya and for the last 12 years she’s been teaching at the

Shree Bishwojoti Primary School in the village of Rajipur. Her monthly salary amounts to 4100 Rupees.

The school has 531 pupils, primarily from a poor background, their families being landless Freed Kamaiyas and Dalits. 

Smiles in the Classroom

The area is affected by the ongoing armed conflict between Maoists and security forces.

A handful of the children in her primary class have been orphan aged due to the conflict and Urmila Jaisi has to cater to their special needs for reassurance. This is made easier with the change in her attitude towards the possible relationship between teacher and pupil. 

Previously she maintained a distance between herself and the children in her classes, because she found it the only way to keep the discipline high and the respect in place.

However, at the training she was taught that a teacher should not be the cause of even one percentage of fear – as it will most certainly affect the learning abilities and the motivation of the children. 

”I have now decided that the children can come as close as they want to, and sometimes I find them crawling all over my head now. They also approach me when they cry and seek solace - something they did not dare before.” 

Thus, the day no longer starts with her calling out the students by name and number and listing them in her big registration book, while they sit in complete silence. Now she is greeted by talkative youngsters who dare ask her how she is – and that do give a much nicer and less formal start to the day, she believes.

Whether or not it is due to the closer and more relaxed relationship between the children and their teacher she does not know, but Urmila Jaisi do feel that the children in her class are smiling and laughing a lot more than a year ago, before her training. 

Increased Popularity

With money from Operation Day’s Work the MS Nepal partner BASE Bardiya supports the construction of schools and education programs for children of landless freed Kamaiyas and Dalits. School management committee members, teachers and parents are included via trainings and meetings. The training programme of Urmila Jaisi is called  ”Child Center Teachers Learning Approaches” . The two weeks are supplemented by a refreshment course after six months. One of the problems she brought up on that course was the handling of group work when four teachers are dealing with 175 children. At the course they were only handling 20 students and she would like to learn more about handling larger classes. 

BASE staff is visiting the school once a month and also supports the refurbishing of the schools classrooms. 

In total three teachers from the Shree Bishwojoti Primary School have received training from the BASE-Bardiya programme. They have all tried to share their new learning with the rest of the staff. Especially some new teaching methods for the 4. and 5. Grade has proven useful. 

The new teaching methods have made the school popular

” Students from a nearby school are keen on joining us. We have to tell the parents that the best thing is to attend a school near to your home so that they do not all send their kids to us,” Urmila says.