COMPLETION OF OUR FIRST TERM

Reflections from a Chair - First Semester Review

I write this as we draw breath in our one week, inter-semester break, which is a good time to take stock. I would have been more cautious in some areas, bolder in others.

I would have been more accommodating to Lao norms and not demanded so much of the staff team and students. We would still have demanded more than any other educational employer in Laos, but maybe not as much as I have. I underestimated how hard it is to change attitudes and expectations. We have shifted them a bit, but not as much as we might have hoped. I write this at 10:40am; at my insistence staff came in at 9:00am, but so far no work has been done. They have instead all been contributing to my travel arrangements for the weekend; very kind, but not especially useful. But here the boss is not expected to do anything useful, or for himself. That’s what staff are for.

We opened our doors with not the faintest idea of how many students might apply. We now know that our Centre is hugely popular (as it ought to be, with no fees and superb facilities) and with hindsight I would have taken more students. It is very sad to have to turn away so many eager young people. On hearing that we might take one or 2 extras for the new semester, I have been inundated with applications, most of who cannot be accommodated within our existing timetable, and I am reluctant to make a major change half way through the year.

We thought our business was teaching English, but the reality is that English has just become a means to an end. The end being higher hopes and wider expectations, a more rational approach to work and study, and the development of professional standards. The trendy phrase is ‘capacity building’.

At least one other English language school has collapsed since we started and I hear of 2 more that are struggling. We have no interest in putting other organisations out of business. Instead I hope what we can do is make them raise their game if they want to stay in business. If we can contribute to a general raising of standards of English language teaching and student experience, then that in itself will have been a major and worthwhile achievement.

Maybe I might have been a little less willing to grab the first volunteers and staff who came within reach; but of course we did not know how selective we could be. We had to let one staff member go, and one volunteer, who is a good teacher, is a difficult colleague. But then, don’t we all have some of those? For all that I might grumble from time to time about our staff, the fact is that they are fantastically proud of what they have helped us achieve here. They are aware of how good we are; that is not arrogance, just a statement of fact. They enjoy a high status in their social settings through being a member of our team. Getting them to want, and demand, that we become even better is the next big challenge. But for now, they have experienced something better than they have previously known, and been introduced to strange falang attitudes like reflection, ambition, and drive for excellence.

Our initial use of volunteers was haphazard and not very rewarding I guess. But now we have proper schemes and systems in place and I think we can offer volunteers a clear and satisfying role which is something much more than just doing the teaching for lazy staff, which seems to be the role they fulfill in some other schools and centres.

It looks as though we got our costings about right and we are even coming in under our initial estimates. Building issues, the landfill question apart, have been minor and most problems swiftly dealt with. There are improvements that could be made. I think that today I may get a quote for anti mosquito netting. (Hope springs eternal!) In fact, again with hindsight we might have had shutters that open inwards; the screens will have to be hinged in some way (and therefore more expensive) to enable the shutters to be fastened.

The lighting in the teaching rooms is not great, and some visiting lighting experts suggested that a single uplighter in each room would provide a better light source than an additional ceiling light. There is also an echo when the shutters have to be closed. The mosquito screens should reduce the amount of times we need to have them closed, but maybe some wall hangings and rugs on the floor, or even some sound-absorbent notice boards might help. I am going to experiment with having one simple projector screen made. That is principally to reduce the blue glare from the white boards, but may affect the acoustics marginally. Outside, the water removal arrangements remain less than perfect but I have no simple or economical solutions beyond the ‘Heath Robinson” ones we have already employed.

The comments about the building are a bit like the more general comments further up. It is a fabulous building and receives admiration from all visitors, but there will always be ways to make further improvements as and when opportunities present themselves.

The students continue to ask for more ‘secure’ parking for their motorbikes, a request supported by the staff but opposed by me for the reasons we have debated before.

The ‘management’ of the Centre continues to be handled almost solely by me, with advice from UK colleagues from time to time. This is a less than perfect arrangement. However for the moment it seems to work and although we must look for a better way of operating I don’t think we should undertake a major change until we are sure that we have a better model to hand. 

I have hardly mentioned the students so far. They are lovely. Mostly hardworking and eager and we are asking a lot of them. The oral exams caused much anxiety but they coped and I think they were useful for us and for the students too. To my surprise we had very few absentees and to my further surprise the oral marks mostly just reflected the course work marks, with very few exceptions. I had thought that the orals would reveal different strengths and performances.

One can, of course read anything you like into mere statistics. But for the most part the student grades over the year have shown a pleasingly significant upward movement. This supports the somewhat impressionistic view that students are more confident and more willing to engage you in conversation in English. The Novices and Monks and the Hmong students all continue to punch above their weight. The latter are almost universally excellent, the former represent some of the strongest but also some of the weakest students. My impression is that overall the girls have done as well as the boys, but again with quite a range at top and bottom ends of the spectrum. 
There are things we might have done differently, but hindsight, as we know, is a wonderful thing.

Alan 28 February 2013