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KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. volunteers are helping teachers teach English at two girls’ schools in the city, Zarghona and Spin Adi, which serve roughly 13,500 students combined.
“It’s the most rewarding thing I do all day – all week – all month, when I go,” said Air Force Capt. Nancy Clemens of Evansville, Ind., military assistant to the chief of staff for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan.
Clemens, who has a master’s degree in English from Southern Illinois University in Evansville, coordinates the volunteer effort.
“We’re giving them the skills to take into their classrooms independently of us,” she said.
The group also has provided supplies such as flash cards and other teaching aids, to the schools’ teachers.
The school lacks electricity and other amenities, but USFOR-A and the Japanese government have helped improve the facility, including by building a well, renovating buildings, expanding classroom space and issuing a contract to supply desks and chairs.
The U.S. has issued an $8 million contract to supply about 7.5 million textbooks in Dari and Pashto to schools throughout Afghanistan, including Zarghona and Spin Adi. The books cover 13 subjects for grade 10 and 12 subjects each for grades 11 and 12.
While the schools and teachers may not have all the resources they would have in America, Clemens said, “I’ve seen these women in the classroom. They’re teachers. They command the classroom. They love their students.”
She added that they were brave too, as women, to go to work in Afghanistan.
The volunteer teacher education program encompasses grammar lessons as well as teaching methodology. It also focuses on concepts that students learning English as a second language may find difficult.
“It’s a building-block process,” Clemens said.
Army Staff Sgt. Melissa Barajas, of El Paso, Texas, executive administrator for the USFOR-A Command Group and a volunteer who leads a team of educators, said the volunteers also try to teach the difference between slang and proper English.
“They yearn for knowledge,” she said of the teachers.
The program provides a forum for cultural exchange and fosters mutual understanding as well, added Barajas, who now lives in Seattle, Wash.
“Too many people think we’re just here to fight a war or to change their ways to ours,” she said. “But that’s not the case. It’s more to embrace them.”
Volunteers meet with teachers in groups, field questions, and move on to lessons. The teachers also are curious about the U.S. and often ask questions, though the volunteers try to stay focused on delivering the core service they’re there for – helping teach English, Barajas said.
She described the relationship with the teachers, overall, as “comfortable, friendly and trusting.”
“We learn together, and we grow,” she said.
While Clemens is working to expand the number of visits to provide a more consistent presence for the school, she said security will remain a primary factor in planning.
She said if she could do one favor for the school, it would be to equip them with computers, but the electrical capacity for the devices isn’t there yet, and the school’s staff would need to be trained to use them.
While the school does not currently have a partnership with a sister school in the U.S. or elsewhere, Clemens said such an arrangement would likely be welcome given the Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education’s interest in educational partnerships.
Offers for assistance need to be sent to the ministry, Clemens said. The ministry’s website is http://english.moe.gov.af.
| Date Taken: | 10.10.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 11.20.2011 06:59 |
| Story ID: | 80289 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: | 383 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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