My experience of teaching in Deusa

- By Mohan Shrestha

Hello! I am Mohan Shrestha from Darjeeling,West Bengal, India . I have been in Nepal as a teacher since more than 20 years. I did teaching in different private schools. The work I did here in urban area (Kathmandu) did not satisfy me. I used to work more than 14 hours daily in private schools but the credit and profit went to the owner or the founder of the schools where I worked. I only used to get a little amount of money after a month, that's all. The students in Kathmandu are rich enough to pay the fees claimed by the schools. They have good environment in schools and home to get good education. They have nothing to do except learning their lessons and doing home works.

Luckily, I got an e-mail from my friend Marianne, from U.K. (who is supporting the village) before last year (2007). She was searching an English teacher for Deusa School, in Solukhumbu district. When I read the mail, I decided to go myself and try once in the rural area. So finally, I went there and started teaching in different environment. I want to share my experience to you all about the school in Deusa.

The school is located in suitable environment and has more than 600 students, classes from KG to ten. The classrooms are sufficient but are in poor condition. They don't have proper doors and windows and the floor is dusty made of mud. In some classes there are more than 60 students and seems congested. Some students walk more than an hour, some two hours also to reach school. They always want to know new things and try their best in class. For the whole year, they work in fields to grow crops. They even have no time to revise their lessons and to do their home works assigned by the teachers. The parents and the guardians are not completely conscious about the education. They give priority to work in the field instead of schooling. In the beginning I found very few attendances but slowly when I tried to give them more knowledge in English, they started to attend regularly. I called the students for extra class in monsoon vacation also which is of 35 days. I taught them English Grammar, music and arts. When I did this class, the students became more interested and came closer to me. Now they start to ask me any questions in which they are confused. I also did extra classes regularly in the morning before class and the evening after class with the support of the head teacher. The head teacher is also energetic and dedicated one. He is good in Mathematics and Science.

Most of the students here in Deusa have not been to town areas till now. So it is very difficult to explain them about new technologies. We have to show them the pictures of vehicles, the pitch road, computers, big hospitals, pollution of land and water and so on. We have very few teaching materials and sometimes we even have problem to get chalk. We don't have facility of electricity so we cannot use computers and visual class is not possible. The students from far need a hostel building but the school doesn't have budget to construct.

I have completed one academic session in this school and thought to settle down again in Darjeeling or in Kathmandu but as soon as I reached Kathmandu from Deusa, I missed the village, villagers, the school and my dear students. I found that the school needs me and my experience. The best place for me to teach is in Deusa, not the wealthy students of city areas. So finally I want to request the volunteers who want to visit Nepal and work as a teacher (or the doctors and nurses for health post) to visit and see Deusa once and help the poor school and the health post. The real taste of teaching is in this area not in the crowded city areas. Now I have already decided to go back again to the same place and serve the poor students.

Hope to see you in Deusa Secondary School.