By Fr. Louie Ybañez, SSC
Looking after the schools in six villages is a huge task that requires constant monitoring. We face many challenges, most of which are long-standing issues that have persisted for many years. A renewed vision with an action plan in place for these schools is needed.
Part of the plan is to train teachers with the necessary skills for effective teaching. This includes class preparations, such as syllabus breakdown and lesson planning, to ensure smooth progression through the lessons for the entire year. It is our hope that the teachers will advance in their careers, but also develop not only skills but passion for honing young minds in the village. The teachers‘ educational backgrounds are not up to the standard, and thus, there is a need to facilitate constant workshop in class preparations and teaching strategies.
The teachers, working in teams of four, prepare the yearly syllabus and lesson plans for each subject for the upcoming school year.
We have a total of 17 teachers in 6 primary schools, which is an insufficient number considering that the six schools cater to children from kindergarten to class five. Many of these teachers – handle multi-grades, managing 2 to 3 classes in one setting. Both learners and teachers suffer when the teacher is unable to cope with the demands of this teaching setting. One of the aims of the workshop – is to teach teachers to devise strategies to manage multi-grade classrooms.
Fr. Louie Ybañez (back row, 5th from left) and the teachers pose for a picture after the second workshop on July 27, 2024
Part of the constant challenge is also the children‘s class attendance due to seasonal migrations. Our children are mostly Parkari Kohli Christians and Hindus with one school having a few Muslims. They come from families of Haris‖ or farm daily wage workers. Most of the schools are built within the land owned by the church. Children have an easy access to these schools on foot but during harvest seasons – which could be several periods during the year as they cultivate different crops within a year, the children are taken by their parents wherevern they go for labor work. This disturbs the rhythm of the school and affects the aptitude of learning of the children. For a family challenged by poverty, putting food on the table is their priority and education is of something at the periphery. With the constant workshop, we hope to be able to respond to this problem by encouraging our teachers to follow-up on the children by meeting the parents to discourage this practice and at the same time to hopefully formulate a lesson programming which will enable the children to catch-up with the lessons when they return.
When I applied for college, I had this feeling that teaching job is not suitable for me, that I don‘t have the right attitude and the drive to endure being a teacher or to be involved in any work related to education. Yet here in Pakistan, together with my a fellow Filipino Columban, Jerry Lohera, we are juggling from parish work, looking after six village schools, and I am also doing a teaching stint in the minor seminary of the diocese—something I didn‘t expect myself to be doing. The call is to go beyond how I see myself and my leanings and to looking at how to courageously respond to what is there before us – in this case, encouraging our teachers to be noble educators.
The odds are enormous and they could weaken our resolve to face many issues. “It is tough in the mission!” as one confrere here would exclaim in a rather antithetical manner when one is a bit slack. I say that it is equally tough when one finds himself not having the right attitude or just trying to endure the work that one is compelled to do. In any work in the mission, there is a call to go beyond mere submission, to push one‘s self to advance the gospel values. In this case, it means ensuring that the teachers have the vision for the vocation that they are called to as educators and that they will take ownership of this call – not falling into being neither hot nor cold. This attitude can affect not only those who render service but especially those at the receiving end; the future of the children in the village is at stake.
The teachers pose for a photo after the in-service training and workshop facilitated by Mr. Paul Mohan (back row, 6th from left) from the Catholic Board of Education – Catholic Diocese of Hyderabad, along with Columban Frs. Liam O’Callaghan, Jerry Lohera, and Louie Ybañez.
