Summer 2011 - Day two

We started our day walking around the school to observe teachers in action. It seems that there is a lot more teaching going on! Firstly, 24 of the 28 teachers were present (as was the case yesterday). Teachers were teaching and students were engaged. In a couple of classes where students were on break, we spoke to the older students to find about their future post-school plans. Just like with our students they dream about becoming doctors, lawyers, engineers, information technicians, or teachers. None of them want to become what is ultimately more likely: farmers, business owners or tourist industry workers. We presented this information to the staff meeting which was met with wide opened eyes and silence. We have no idea what that means.

Then, the promised cricket match began! Wow can those kids play! And wow how those kids are so happy WHEN they play! We suggested that perhaps they consider a weekly match and inter school games.

When the games were over, we did some 'needs' analysis regarding furniture. Furniture requests represented a large portion of the requests for the left over budget. We met with the entire staff again to introduce our set of criteria to help prioritise the list of their requests. These were that the requests must be one of more of the following:

1. Educational and help students advance towers success
2. Must be important need for the school and students
3. Can not be funded by the government
4. Money making project that can fund other needs

We rated each request according to this set of criteria to show teachers where the chips fall, so to speak. The teachers and the principal seemed very interested by the idea. At the end of the meeting, one teacher came to us and proposed that they start a student newspaper. In listening to him, it was clear that he most definitely had thought about the 4 criteria as in fact that idea meets them all. This same teacher requested a comfy chair and newspapers for the staff room yesterday. So, it seems that this meeting put a whole new perspective on how to spend money.

In the evening, we met with Principal and a translator to take a closer look at the last 5 years and review how the projects we funded fit or didn't fit the 4 criteria, in order to reduce future waste of funds. Principal spoke very candidly about each past project and answered old questions we had been puzzled by. Looking forward, Principal says he has ideas for ways to spend the left over budget. We are eager to see how they match up with the criteria set. We also asked him to consider two possible candidates for a scholarship - one academic and one athletic.