Growing enthusiasm to learn amongst the children in Thinadoo

Dressed as locals and ready to teach in the Maldives

COUNTRY: Maldives
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Sports Coaching
WRITTEN BY: Minna Featherstone

After a relaxing short stay at a nearby resort - packed with luxuries that included all you can eat buffets with a huge choice of mouth-watering foods unavailable on Thinadhoo, an extremely filling 5 course meal (which takes place every week apparently!) spacious rooms with outdoor bathrooms and another dance-til-you-drop party on the sand we returned relaxed and ready to start helping out at Thinadhoo school.
The Maldivian weekend of Friday-Saturday was extended to include Sunday that week, as it was the Maldives National Day. Our group still popped by the school to meet and greet the teachers we were paired up with and to try on traditional dresses they had brought for us to wear on the first day of school. The teachers loved fussing over the girls and complaining how we were too tall to fit their dresses, with some making trips home and back to try and find a better fit. The following Monday we arrived at school early to be fussed over once more in our borrowed outfits and the teachers also insisted on us wearing ornaments in our hair. Once we were deemed satisfactorily dressed up the first bell rang and the students rushed in - all in their own traditional dresses for the girls, and a shirt and sarong combination for the boys, although a couple came in formal suits which included vests and ties - an impressive look to pull off in the heat of the day for a school kid!

The first day of school flew by pretty fast, there was a welcoming assembly for the entire school and then the grade 3 class I am helping out with sat three tests in a row. I was shocked how the students seemed completely unfazed by this on their first day! The children seemed a little timid at first, but opened up and were very friendly and eager learners. The following day involved zero tests and proper classes. Thinadhoo School follows the Cambridge Syllabus and the way classes are structured reminded me a lot of my primary school days. The principal Ajeeb explained to us that their aim was to impart knowledge via activities that engaged the children, such as class discussions and group activities. So far very much like the primary school I attended so long ago. But there are certainly differences to schools back home, every school day begins with a ten minute morning prayer and only three or four classes here are taught in English. These are English, environmental science, maths and for the older children PE. The other two main classes all the children have are Islam and Dhivehi, their local language. Two of our volunteers have raised their hands to help out at the nearby preschool which has little access to resources and almost zero help from the government.

After school’s out we have a short walk home and a couple of hours to nap or prepare for swimming lessons which begin at 4pm. We take two groups, first grades 6-7 and then grades 4-5, both for 45 minute lessons. Our first swimming lesson involved all the volunteers splitting up into pairs or threes and taking a small number of children out into the water after a short safety talk. We then assessed what level the kids swimming abilities were at and numbered them off into groups of similar skill levels. After resorting groups (which worked out to usually be 3-5 kids per group) we then got to know the children in our group and began to work on basic skills such as kicking and blowing bubbles, and after the serious stuff we played some games. Many of the children that I asked about taking swimming lessons had said they had been several times before with the Australians. It showed that they had previously learnt basic floating and kicking skills, but even though they live in the beautiful tropics of the Maldives, they don’t have too many opportunities to practise these skills, some only go swimming when there are volunteers teaching lessons.

The rest of the week followed with more helping out at the school (when we don't have a class we spend a LOT of time cutting and colouring classroom decorations). We also learnt that the kids love to give small handmade gifts to us in class. More than half of the group decided on another overnight trip to the nearby uninhabited island who went fishing and learnt to make naan bread with Asad. A small group of us decided to pass sleeping out on the cold and uncomfortable hard sand of the beach to stay on Thinadhoo trying the food on offer from the local cafes, which included our first opportunity to order the local version of fish and chips! Both groups had a chance to do some more snorkelling over the weekend. Our first week of helping out at school and teaching swimming lessons now over marks the halfway point of our trip. Next week some of us will start to take a few classes and continue to see our enthusiastic swimming students improve their skills!