First Day at School

Wednesday 14^th September 2011

It was the first day at school today, except that this is the day just for teachers, before the kids arrive to spoil it. I managed to walk by myself to the school and didn’t get lost.  This is actually the first time I have been out on my own so quite an achievement as to me at the moment all the streets look very similar.  The school door was open and I walked through the doors looking for signs of life and then heard lots of talking from one of the rooms so opened the door to what was the staff room.  It was a pleasant room, painted pale green with pretty net curtains over the 2 large windows and a number of women sitting at the desks positioned around the room.  I recognised Juliette and Katie and they came over and sat me down with them.  Everyone was friendly and I was introduced to all of them along with their subject however I was aware that I was an object of curiosity and not for the first time that day wished I had worn something over my arms and was not showing glimpses of my red bra as I imagined that I was being branded as a slapper from London or however you say that in Georgian!

My two co-teachers showed me round the school which is quite small and on two floors.  We come across a couple of unsuspecting students and one boy is press-ganged into asking me where I am from.  “London, England” I say in my best accent.  Juliette translates for me “Londonidan”.  The boy is literally terrified.  The next lad clearly wishes he had stayed in bed when ordered to “stand up” and then say how old he is.  Juliette sensitively prods him by shouting “One, two, three!” and then gives up and says something in Georgian and he says “Eighteen”.  The result of 12 years of English education.  Each class has its own room and the students stay in the class while the teachers move around.  Lessons are 45 minutes each with a 5 minute break between so that the teachers can scamper and set up for the next class.  Classrooms are small about 20 feet square but there are only around 10 to 18 students in a class.  First lesson is at 9:00 but I had confused answers about the rest of the school day and it either ends at 12 or 2:30 and starts again for the younger children at 2:30 and finishes at 5 or 6.  I don’t know and will have to wait and see.  The timetable hasn’t been finished yet either so we don’t know what classes we teach yet but hopefully it will be done before the students arrive tomorrow as no-one will go to any classes.

The “books” haven’t arrived yet either.  The Georgian government are investing heavily in the learning of English and MacMillan has produced a set of materials that “all teachers must follow” and apparently includes teacher’s book, student workbooks, posters, flashcards and other resources.  Teachers have had training in the material already but still don’t have the actual material to prepare for the classes. But it’s ok as plan B is to introduce me to the class until the books arrive.  Also there are resources such as big sheets of paper to decorate the classroom which appear throughout the year but I am not sure about this one.  I would have thought that they would have left the best of last year’s work on the walls (that’s what we do in England anyhow) rather than have peeling grey paint on show.  We will see.  While we were in Batumi, we bought a pack of coloured paper and white paper to make displays and we brought with a laminator for 15 quid in Tesco’s; we saw one for £100 here.  I am already mentally making a list of stuff to bring back with me in January ha-ha.  No clothes just resources!

Then there was the official staff meeting.  Much the same as in England really and the language barrier wasn’t a problem at first as I zoned out (much the same as in England) “Blah, blah” punctuated by brief translations “Teachers can no longer work overtime”  “Blah blah” Then the director gets really heated and shouts for quite a long time and then one woman gets up runs out in tears.  She is one of the Georgian teachers and she has just been told her services are no longer required.  Not a very nice way to do it really; come back to start the school year only to be told in front of all the staff that you are too old at 77 and have to leave.  As I say much the same as in England.  More shouting by the director and being argued and shouted down very effectively by the 77 year old geography teacher who was a previous director at the school. It is very interesting what you can understand without understanding the actual words.  I don’t like the director who is the only man in the room.  Please refer back to a previous post where he turned up at the house, got pissed and slobbered all over the 16 year old daughter, kissing her and telling her she was beautiful.  I don’t think this was a case of different cultural norms either.  It’s the same old bloody story of fear of offending authority.  Anyhow, it put me off him and I don’t like him.  He then shouted a lot more and interestingly the body language of many of the women was with one arm supporting their head and looking blankly at him.  A whole row of teachers echoed each other’s body language which seemed to say “Resistance is useless”.  No-one went after the distressed Georgian teacher that I could see; but I could be wrong.  Teachers do not earn a lot of money here; about 350 GEL which is approximately £150 a month take home.  It is low paid in comparison with other professions and most teachers are women; many are also unqualified, maybe even without a degree.  The director also announced that teachers have to pass the teacher’s certificate by next year.  I can’t imagine that those over 65 will attempt this and this will cut the teaching profession considerably.  He also announced that 3 teachers will be going next year.  As I said, much the same as England really.