National Volunteers

Happy World Teacher Day everyone!!!

A request has been sent out for education volunteers to post on entry on their blogs about this year’s theme: Recovering Begins with Teachers. This is an entry I have been preparing for a while, but I think suits the theme of the day. So here is my contribution.

Oh and thanks to those who text and rang me before six this morning to wish me a happy world teacher day. Clearly some eager beavers out there! The messages were truly appreciated.


National Volunteers

Recently I was involved with training of a new group of national volunteers at the Cyril Potter College of Education. Over one lunch break, I actually had the chance to talk to a couple of the students from the College who were getting organised to return to their respective schools in the new school year. This conversation left me somewhat dumbfounded.

I was astounded to learn how long it takes to become a graduate teacher here. First people are appointed into schools, with no qualification. They then sit exams to get into CPCE and do a three-year certificate. After that, there is another four years at the University of Guyana. Only then they are considered a graduate. It become very obvious, after spending seven years studying plus others working in a school, why the graduates are easily attracted to the higher wages offered in other parts of the Caribbean and beyond. The consequence of this is teacher shortages, especially in rural or remote areas.

That is where the National Volunteer program steps in. It’s very similar to the scheme I am on, only this time it is Guyanese who are placed in rural or remote schools, as volunteers. They receive three weeks training before the placement and are paid an allowance while they are away. The placement is for one year (although a number of volunteers from last year have come back to do another year). As well as helping to fill the current shortage, the hope is that some of these volunteers will go on to train as teachers (and so begins the dilemma outlined above).

I was asked to be involved in the training this year and I jumped at the opportunity to do so. It was a chance to have some influence over teaching practices, within the schools (and not just the National Volunteers but also with the teachers in the schools where they are placed).

…And what a group we had this year. They came from around the country and with different experiences of schools. The one thing they all had in common was they were keen to learn. This could be seen by the way they became greatly involved in the activities.

I ran a session on the writing process, showing them how it can be used to improve the quality of writing and how to teach it. The students used the process to write their own stories and I was absolutely delighted with the quality of the stories that I read. The good thing about this is if they find they are in schools with limited reading material, they can produce their own. I only just wished I had thought about the publication stage more, as it would have been good to have put their stories into a book and given each a copy. Next time.

I also assisted with session on reading and storytelling. The big focus of this was to show how to get students engaged with reading but also how to use the texts to develop a range of skills with very limited resources and time. Not only that, we were trying to demonstrate different teaching strategies that are student-centred. A lot of fun was had by all, especially when the water pistols came out.

I also was able to see a session, which involved some local teachers, on using and creating teaching aids. I was absolutely blown away with the quality of the aids they had produced. They were very student-centred and clearly engaging, as could be seen by the way the National Volunteers were getting into the activities.

This is the thing I am finding here in Guyana. There is what I would consider absolutely world-best practice happening here; I am being exposed to this time and time again. Teachers with a lot less resources then I have ever had and much larger classes doing the most incredible job, way beyond what I cold ever imagine doing. The other thing, once again, from talking with them I discovered was that they are facing the same issues that we face as teachers in Australia, especially in rural settings.

The trick for Guyana will be to hold on to teachers like these ones, as they are clearly where the education system here needs to be for it to be as good, if not better, than the education system they had a number of years ago (which I am constantly reminded of). This is also true of the National Volunteers as there were some truly natural operators in the group. Oh and the best thing, eight of these absolutely great operators have now come to work right here in Region 7! I couldn’t be happier!!!


I have to point out that National Volunteers and Inclusive Education are separate VSO programs (I’m a part of the Inclusive Education program). One of the best things about being a volunteer is that, sometimes, we get the opportunity to crossover into other programs, and, sometimes, people from different programs get to work together. Not only that, we also get to network and work with people from across organisations. I am really looking forward to continuing my involvement in this type of work.