Teaching Schoolchildren in Nepal

by Alex Norton Payne
(England)

My time at the school in Nepal was some of the best I have spent during my travels. Both students and teachers went out of their way to accommodate me, and I was made to feel like one of the family.

Physical education is something the children only have a cursory knowledge of. Outside football and early morning fitness they just don't do any. Gradually over my stay we moved from basic stretches, hand/eye co-ordination exercises and cardio-vascular fitness up to running, marching and high-speed fitness games. The children loved every second of it, just enjoying being out of the classroom. Throughout classes it was equally important to stress health issues - why we should keep fit and so on.

To teach, prior knowledge of your subject is of great importance because the children are relying on you to teach them new and useful things. So think first, do you really know enough about a subject to spend maybe an hour a day teaching it? Bear in mind that the Nepalese are incredibly fast learners, and something that would take a month to learn here can be figured out in a week there. Not perfectly, mind you, but enough to get by.

To be honest, I think that during my time at the school, I learned more than the students did. The Nepalese are a magical people, and after coming from a consumer-based society where community spirit is all but forgotten, they rekindled my faith in humanity. If you can teach a subject and want to know more about my experiences and volunteering opportunities, please visit VEEP Nepal. They are very much a professional organisation.