BEP Mobile Teaching Unit: One month in Mae Sot

After one month here in Mae Sot getting to know the place and my fellow co-workers, finding the good restaurants and bars, moving house, and generally settling in, I’ve finally found some time to sit down and write about my time in the camp so far...

After meeting the teachers altogether as a team, dividing our schools and a hand over session from Alice (VSO trainer in the process of developing the curriculum and preparing materials), we were dropped at our respective bamboo gates and let loose. For me Week 1 was mostly spent wandering around Zone A, getting lost and muddy, and attempting to find my schools (succeeding thanks to some helpful residents). I met all the G1 teachers, head teachers and some students and even managed to do a couple of sneaky observations. Almost all of the schools were still teaching the alphabet and, frustratingly, the names of the letters and not the sounds! 

However when visiting Primary 6, a former demonstration school who’ve had some training already, I can see a noticeable difference in the teaching there. The 2 teachers (Bway Mo and Anna Paw) are using the materials confidently, are already on unit 5, and their students seem to know their “Hello, how are you”, “nice to meet you” and “A says ‘ah”. It is great to witness this, as Primary 6 is proof that our project can actually make a difference and improve the quality of teaching and the level of English.

At the first Friday training session I held, the teachers practically demanded help with pronunciation, and whilst most teachers were a little shy, some were happy to describe the problems they and their students were having. We did some flashcard activities, went over unit 2 aims and made appointments for me to see them next week. In the van on the way back Katherine and Caroline and I were all buzzing from a successful first week and we decided to meet up with all the BEP’ers for a cocktail to celebrate!

Weeks 2 and 3 ran more smoothly, armed with a timetable, names of teachers, amended maps and a fuzzy overview of the general situation we faced! My teachers were very accommodating when I turned up during a Burmese or Karen lesson, and some are even nice enough to feed me – inviting me into their homes, meeting their families and sharing their rice with me. Attendance on Friday was low in the second week, potentially because some teachers thought it was only a one time session, but by week 3 most of my teachers were present (including a new G1 teacher from Primary P1a who I previously wasn’t aware of because the school was shut every time I attempted to visit owing to full moons, Buddha’s birthday and other holidays I’m yet to understand about). After a rocky start in this week’s training we get into the swing of things, worked on praise, error correction and have agreed that by next week almost all the schools will be moving on to Unit 3 and after asking, the teachers feel about 70% confident about the unit, its aims and how to teach it.

One thing that sticks in my mind from last week is the young, shy teacher from Primary 2 – Saw Hsay Hto. When I reached his class on Thursday morning, it was empty. “Here we go…” I thought, assuming class had been cancelled, but one of the Science teachers runs over and leads me to a separate building, which is basically an empty hall used as a play area for students during the break. Grade 1 is sitting in a line passing a flash card around making the correct sound for H!! Immediately I’m ushered to the front of the class to ‘start’ teaching, but after a little encouragement Hsay Hto continues to lead the class and I just show him another flash card game to play and model correct pronunciation of a few letters he is unsure of. Afterwards, over a birdy coffee, he confides in me his ambition is to be a better teacher and hopes to also improve his English so he can teach better. I leave Primary 2 beaming: I can’t believe I would actually see developments already, but now have high hopes for the next 5 months!

The Burma Education Partnership,  (BEP) is a UK-based voluntary organisation which provides professional educational support for schools in communities on the Thai/Burma border displaced by war, oppression and economic hardship. BEP is involved in both materials development and teacher training. It also operates a Mobile Teacher Unit working in partnership with Burmese teachers in the classroom offering  training, planning sessions and English language upgrading leading to formal accreditation.

With the financial and professional support of TEFL.com we are working to raise the profile of the Burma Education Partnership and in so doing helping some of the most disadvantaged and insecure communities in South East Asia.