by Nadine Kradolfer (Swiss missionary, house-wife, mother and home educator)
I’ve been working as an English teacher at the École Bonne Nouvelle (Good News School) for almost a year
and a half now. Time for a first look back – and a few anecdotes.
The fact that I, as one of the few non-native English speakers in the team, am teaching English at all may seem a bit strange! There are certainly colleagues who can express themselves more eloquently, or have better pronunciation or can explain grammar more easily. However, most of them are busy with other jobs in the hospital. And so, after almost a year in Madagascar, I made the decision to teach at the École Bonne Nouvelle - and I haven’t regretted it for a single moment (and I mean that literally!).
Every Monday, the pupils sing the national anthem.
One of my English classes.
Right on time for the morning break, the snack vendors wait at the gate. They sell rolls, etc., but also salad and sometimes even ice cream!
I teach two secondary school classes, which is my “favourite age group”. I find the pupils to be highly motivated, very interested, humorous and often quite chatty. In my first year, I needed a lot of time to prepare lessons, particularly because we have virtually no teaching materials. Every worksheet must be sourced, or created from scratch. Every flashcard or picture has to be printed out and laminated. That takes up a lot of time - especially for someone like me, who isn’t a trained teacher. Now, in my second year, I can begin to reap the rewards of last year’s meticulous preparation – and yet I still find myself constantly tweaking last year’s work.
Little stories from everyday school life
Here are a few glimpses into my day-to-day life as a teacher:
Who needs running water when you can wash your hair with rainwater?
As I turn the corner, I see some pupils running out of the classroom they have just entered, screaming at the top of their lungs. A chameleon has made itself comfortable on the back of a chair! Many Malagasy people dislike chameleons. Some think they are a bad omen, while others simply find them creepy. With two broomsticks and the help of a brave pupil, we manage to remove the young chameleon from the classroom and put it up a tree under the watchful eyes of about 50 pupils.
Today’s lesson is all about the topic of “restaurants”. While practising a spontaneous dialogue, a pupil orders chicken from the “waiter”. The waiter heads to the “kitchen”, starts clucking loudly, then mimics chopping sounds, followed by feather-plucking and frying noises. Finally he returns to the table with the “chicken”. Apparently, the chicken needed to be slaughtered before it could be served!
The pupils can be very direct and are not shy about correcting their teacher (or at least me). Before Christmas we played a puzzle game where the solution on the board read “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”. While I was still speaking, a pupil got up, grabbed a piece of chalk and changed “Merry to “Marry”. Satisfied with his “correction,” he sat back down, convinced he’d done a good deed until I explained that he’d just invited us all to marry Christmas!
Many pupils are very enthusiastic about music and dance. Recently, we sang a song in the English class to practise pronunciation and listening skills. As soon as the first notes played, the children sang and danced along enthusiastically. Even during the rest of the lesson, I kept hearing lines or phrases from the song murmured softly under their breath: “If God is with us, who can be against us?” A pretty good song and a catchy tune!
We’re going on a school trip! And very excited.
Of course, the bus gets stuck. How could it be otherwise?
Sports shoes are often shared among several pupils. As soon as class A returns from PE, the pupils from class B are already waiting to borrow their shoes. As far as I can tell, it’s very well organised, with each pupil knowing exactly whose shoes they are borrowing. I now plan for the first few minutes of class to be used for this “shoe exchange.”
During the winter months, it gets dark here as early as 5 p.m. However, the upper classes have lessons until 5:45 p.m. and need lights in their classrooms. Unfortunately, the electricity supply is unreliable, so sometimes it’s simply: “Sorry, no more lights. School’s out.” Even when there’s still plenty left to do.
The classrooms are sometimes quite cramped.
Challenges and setbacks
Of course, not everything is always fun and easy. There are many challenges, particularly when it comes to infrastructure. The classrooms are much too small, even after a recent renovation, and poorly equipped.
The blackboards, although regularly repainted, become barely legible after a short time. Power outages and poor lighting don’t help either. The schoolyard is too small for the number of children and offers hardly any shade – being outside in the summer is unbearable, but the classrooms are also hot and stuffy.
Family tree neatly drawn on the blackboard. For copying down.
In addition, many teaching materials are either unavailable or extremely outdated. The school’s budget is so tight that we’re sometimes not allowed to make photocopies to supplement or replace missing resources.
The photocopier is so poor that images are practically unusable. All this makes a varied teaching approach, in which different teaching and learning methods can be applied, almost impossible. So, in the end, there’s often no other option than to write everything on the board and have the pupils copy it – usually with numerous mistakes, as the writing is often barely legible. This wastes a great deal of time that could be used more productively.
Dreams and hopes
Despite all these challenges, our school has long been one of the best in Mandritsara. The children here not only receive a comparatively good education, but – even more importantly – hear about God and can share their faith with their peers and teachers. I am convinced that this daily sharing of faith is a great blessing for them as it is for me.
I dream of a school with plenty of space for the children. I dream of blackboards that are easy to read. I dream of meaningful, sustainable teaching materials for every grade. I dream of IT lessons for the upper classes that could give them a real advantage in the job market and in life in general. I dream of an affordable school. I dream of motivated teachers through whom pupils can experience God’s love. One is allowed to dream, right?
A new temporary building for the upper grades that offers a bit more space.
Will all of these dreams come true? Probably not. But perhaps some of them will. We believe in a great God for whom nothing is impossible. In the coming years, a major school renovation is planned. I hope that we’ll be able to rethink École Bonne Nouvelle from the ground up, rather than simply making minor improvements here and there. A school is more than its buildings – it’s about its teaching, its pupils, its teachers, its culture, and its vision. This comprehensive renewal is a huge opportunity. Let’s hope and pray for its success.
Prayer points:
Praise God for EBN and the comparatively good education that it provides for many pupils.
Pray for motivated, qualified Christian teachers who pass on their faith to the pupils with conviction.
Pray for calmness and creativity to make the best of the daily challenges. But also for vision and perseverance to bring about change.
Pray that the pupils will be encouraged and strengthened in their faith and that they will leave, not only with a good education but also with a strong faith.
Pray for the future restructuring: for a strong project management team and that we can make the most of this opportunity.
Save the Date
Friends of Mandritsara Hybrid Prayer Day - 12th April, London
Join us from 1:00pm for lunch with the prayer meeting starting at 2:00pm. There will be the option to join online, and further details will be sent out closer to the time via the stories emails. Click Here for more info.