SCRAMBLE OVER RESOURCES: T TOWN
Starved for learning resources, this town has the feeling of a cargo cult in the making. Dropping in unexpectedly, I am targeted as a walking resource and without any effort on my part, am soon told in detail what is missing and what is needed. I have not come to make a shopping list, but to find out how motivated students manage and I soon see that this town is special, not only for its tranquil green views, but also for the earnest and bright-eyed students who yearn for a chance to learn.
5.1 The first day
I find the English teacher sitting at her loom in front of her bamboo slatted home. She doesn't remember me and is mystified by the photo of her, taken more than a year ago. She doesn't remember how she pulled me off the street into a classroom to explain word order to her. I was impressed by her efforts. She had just graduated from Teachers Training College (TTC) and was distraught at her lack of knowledge. She has forgotten that incident now and seems to have lost her enthusiasm. Her English has not improved much either.
Not much has changed for the school either, evident by the information that she gives me about current conditions. Teachers get chalk from the government, but not much else. Two English teachers handle 900 students jammed 70-80 to a class. She copies a textbook on the board for students to copy into their notebooks. She is tired from all her work. She says that only half of the students are motivated and she knows that they don't understand even though they claim to. She gives them homework, but there isn't much they can do without books.
She points out the other English teacher. I greet him, but he denies that he teaches English. His ability is limited. He also graduated from TTC and has been teaching in T Town for around two years, but admits that he doesn't like it here and is just biding his time. Teachers are on probation for several years, but once their job is secured, they cannot be fired and are then free to find another position.
I suggest that I teach for the few days that I am here, but he is interested in a library. The rarity and value of books becomes a central theme throughout my stay. I have brought a photocopied grammar book as a gift for the teacher and the second copy gets a lot of attention. Several requests are made, but I say that it is reserved for another student that I had met on the last trip.
5.2 Big people
I am invited to dinner and enter a room where a group of five middle-aged men are midway through their meal and further into their drinking. Electricity has been shut off in the entire town to save oil, but this house is lit. I am not welcomed like I am used to in Laos. Snide remarks are made about me being single and I am told that I am worthless without a PhD. Only one senior man gives me attention, pouring me drinks and telling me how great and generous the American is that he works with. As he toasts to me, I begin to see dollar signs in his eyes.
The event begins to stitch itself together. The provincial head from Luang Prabang has come to check up on the school. The district head and school principal sit to his left. Next to me is the senior man whose position is not clarified. Apparently, he has status because of his job with the international organisation and I am told later that if I look for his cars, I can find his house.
The others do not seem impressed with the attention he gives me, but after he leaves, they warm up a bit. The provincial head has prepared his three requests: 1) support for a library 2) support for more books 3) support for the upper secondary school. He must have been briefed about me before I stepped into the room, but I can see his shoulders drop when I tell him that I don't have the money.
This welcome party is a prelude to the events to come and it becomes clear how power and self-interest determines who benefits and who does not.
5.3 Mr. Boun B
I think about giving the second copy of the grammar book to Mr. Boun B. In this small district of around 300 households, he is the only private English teacher, charging students 15,000 kip a month or $1.50 US. He keeps his class limited to 4-5 students and has a steady flow of students, though the English he speaks is mainly patched together from self-study and conversations with foreigners. He runs a tiny guesthouse with a two-table restaurant and tracks down tourists for business and English language exposure. He can talk for hours and one of his favourite topics is comparing the past with the present. He thinks it is ironic that in the 70s the poor were sent to study overseas, but now it is only the rich who have the chance. Looking at his clapboard house, it is apparent that opportunity has passed him by.
The female teacher has found me at Mr. Boun B's house and brings up the library as if it is urgent. The library has materialised quickly from its first two-word gestation. I want to know how the books will be managed, but she says that the teachers have time and can take care of them. She tells me that the school head has invited me to stay at his house, but I suspect that this is because they think I have come with a fat chequebook. I gently convince her that the best I can do is to collect information and look for donors.
Soon after she leaves, Mr. Boun B gives me his version of how books are managed. Students must leave a deposit when borrowing books, but it is not always returned. He confirms this later in a conversation with a student. Teachers on a $30 US monthly wage reinterpret “lending” as “renting” and run a bit of a side business. Mr Boun B warns me of the way money flows.
He criticises the European Union (EU) projects because they pay first and check later. In one project, university educated teachers were brought to town to teach for several months. By the end of the program, only three of the initial 200 students were left. The others gave up because the level was too high. Mr. Boun B says that the EU’s conclusion was that Lao students are lazy.
He says that US aid is stingier. Nevertheless, the wages are inflated. A man is hired to boil water for $80 US a month, almost three times that of a teacher. Mr. Boun B is indignant that one senior Lao staff member has kept hold of his position for several years. The job should be rotated and the wealth shared. No name is mentioned, but I assume that the man he is talking about is the one who toasted me the night before.
Mr. Boun B admits that some students are lazy. Others are stupid and then there are the ones who try. Though there are combinations and variants, he thinks that less than 50% of the students are truly earnest about studying. He explains that lazy students want to be policemen or soldiers as policemen can get payoffs and soldiers can enjoy peace in the woods playing cards. Many simply do not know what to do and just follow their friends. Some students who receive government subsidies see the chance to study as a free ticket from farm labour. Mr. Boun B complains that students don't understand the costs they incur. Their homegrown rice they eat is free, but the weekly transportation needed to fetch it is not.
I ask about the girls. Most of his students are boys, but one female student is excellent and is at the top of her class. He says that she is not only smart, but also beautiful and rich. For most of the girls, however, they are more interested in applying makeup and finding a husband. The average marrying age for girls is 17 and 25 for boys, though much lower in the outlying villages. He says that some girls want to become teachers or nurses, but if they study too much, they will forget about marriage and get old. He considers 22 too old.
He tells me to marry a poor woman because she will be dependable, but saying a poor woman is dependable is to say that an uneducated woman is better kept. He threatens his wife and tells her that if she doesn’t behave, he’ll abandon her to the poverty that she came from. His wife doesn't seem to be that impressed with her purported wealth and complains about his bookish ambitions. “Do you think you’re going to be prime minister or something?”
Mr. Boun B continues to speak his mind, even on the sensitive issue of ethnic minorities. He says that Khamu are not as ambitious and many want to become police. He, however, reserves his praise for the Hmong. Though he is lowland Lao himself, he notes how the Hmong students
study hard and ask questions. Three Hmong villages have even collected $50 US and have asked Mr. Boun B to teach them. They want to know that their money will be well spent and have specifically asked him to teach. He turned them down because the commute to the high mountain village would be too exhausting.
He concludes by telling me to take all his information with a grain of salt. “If you really want good information, you’d better talk to as many people as you can,” he tells me.
Within hours, his students are telling me their side of the story. Some say that Mr. Boun B is stingy and always thinking about how to make a profit. They say that he doesn’t share his books and is sometimes too lazy to answer their questions. The students also complain about the school head. They say he spends too much time taking his truck around and trading goods. They feel he has held on to his position for too long and is not proactive enough about hiring good teachers as school heads in other towns are. They claim that this is all common knowledge.
5.4 Hmong students
During the regular term, around 500 students come from neighbouring Khamu and Hmong villages to board at the school. Only the senior students are still in town, preparing for their final tests. I spot Hmong student A running through the rain to duck into an empty classroom. It is hard to study in his makeshift shelter and candles have to be used at night for light. He has bought four books with his own money. Some books can be borrowed from the office, but the selection is limited and does not meet the demand during peak examination times. He considers himself an average student, but quickly names the three star students in town, Boun W, Boun X and Hmong student C.
Hmong student C comes from a Hmong village of around 60 households and goes home every week to get rice that is grown by the family on swidden fields. He knows that life in the village is not easy so he studies hard and tries not to waste money by playing or drinking. He feels that learning many languages will give him access and knowledge to a wider world, but knows that he will not be able to study in Luang Prabang unless he can find the funds. During the conversation, he mentions several times that the Hmong study hard.
Hmong student C says that Lao and Hmong teachers have different methods of teaching. The Hmong teach clearly and give examples while the lowland Lao teachers go too quickly and skip details. Mr. Boun B also agrees that lowland Lao teachers in the school try to cover too much in too little time and pace the class towards the best students rather than the slowest.
I work with Hmong student C for several hours and get a sense of how he approaches learning. He doesn't speak much English, though this is understandable because of the absence of input. He is interested in Japanese so I am given a chance to start fresh with a new language for him. He asks specific questions and seems satisfied with his understanding of the phonetic system. I am asked to translate six sentences from English, which he then uses to compare word order and analyse words functions. He asks for the translation of six basic verbs and then figures out how they are conjugated by referring to the sample sentences. In a short time, we have covered a bit of phonetics, word order, verb conjugation, rules of omission and honorifics. He is interested more in understanding structure than simply memorising words and this approach may come from having already studied two foreign languages.
I later work with two 17 year-old Hmong students. Student D has a small notebook with a hand written verb list, painstakingly copied by his older brother. Most are words that would be found in a doctorate dissertation, but he is quick to pick out the common ones and test his pronunciation. He wants to know how to pronounce the ending “ed”. He warms up and begins making sample sentences, always carefully enunciating the “ed”. His friend observes shyly and an older Hmong man who apparently has had no education is also interested in learning.
It is hard to find food in T Town so I buy tinned fish and join the Hmong students for dinner. The “dorms” for ethnic minority students are behind the school. They have built the simple bamboo structures by themselves though the locked toilet was constructed by a development project. The Hmong and Khamu cluster separately now, but am told that in the past when there were fewer students, there was more interaction and more inter language learning. There is no mention of racial problems or hostility. It is quiet now with only the senior students remaining to take their final tests. I meet 10 Hmong males and one Hmong female.
The Hmong girl is invited by the boys to eat, but she declines because she eats with a female teacher. The next day she comes at breakfast and seems to want to participate in the conversation. I ask about the photocopied document she has brought and she explains that it is a history lesson. It costs 500 kip a page to copy in the nearest town, compared to 250 in Luang Prabang and 110 in Vientiane. It is dense, even at five pages. Student C tells me that it is difficult to understand since they are rushed through 12 different subjects every week. They are curious to know how classes are conducted abroad and ask specifically about class discussion. They seem resigned to the fact that interesting discussion in their classes will not happen when everyone reads the same book.
Student B says said that girls don't try to study and are too shy to ask questions, but I am not convinced that they are given a chance. Student C also says that girls do not study, but admits that if there were schools and teachers in their villages they might have more opportunities. Parents are reluctant to send their daughters away resulting in an unbalanced gender ratio among boarding students. Being the only girl of ten, Student B is socially isolated though she spots the foreigner as a learning opportunity and takes the initiative to join.
Traditional cultural norms limit a Hmong girl’s chance to study. Most get married at an early age as it is believed that those who do not become “lost souls” in the afterlife (Lee 1994-5). Furthermore, women do not maintain the family line and are therefore valued more for their labour. On the other hand, according to Lee, a disciplined daughter will be valued more than an incapable son, and it is not unusual to find exceptions to traditional gender roles.
5.5 Star student: Boun X
Boun X is famous throughout town for his ability to converse in English. He works at a guesthouse and is not shy to approach foreigners. In fact, he is rather aggressive. He doesn't remember me and can’t find me in his address book, though I notice that he has 33 entries of foreign names.
He comes from a village 35 km. from the Vietnamese border and tells me that if I really want to see what rural education is about, I should visit his village. The village is made up of 20% lowland Lao, 60% Khamu and 20% Hmong and has a graduate from Teachers Training College (TTC) teaching in the school. He himself is lowland Lao.
He is critical of his classmates who copy and cheat. He says that the teachers in T Town are not good as they rarely use English when teaching. He criticises his teacher saying, “She grammar no good”. His own English, like Mr. Boun B’s, has been learned through self-study and exposure to tourists. He communicates with confidence, but with little reference to conventional grammar. This is in contrast to Hmong student C who cannot communicate, but understands structure well.
I go through his notebook and have trouble convincing him of the errors. When he tries to write down sentences that I suggest, I can see that what he hears is converted back into his own invented grammar. We do a bit of structural analysis. It is a struggle for him, but he concentrates, makes progress and is grateful for the help. He admits that he has never had anybody teach him in this way. Though his English is imperfect, I am impressed with how much he has accomplished with so little. I suggest some more learning strategies so that he can construct language rather than scavenge for it as he is reputed to chase away tourists with his aggressiveness.
5.6 Running the school
The female teacher thanks me for the book, but admits that she doesn't understand everything. She has no questions and the offer to teach students during this short interim has not taken shape. I am careful because I think I have offended her by correcting her grammar as our conversations have reverted to Lao. Meals and drinking seem to be more important than studying and the teachers seem distressed that I have eaten with the students rather than receive their hospitality. We then proceed to eat and drink for the next eight hours.
The school head joins us. This is the man that the students have criticised for not doing his job. He is pleasant and neatly dressed. He makes social conversation without bringing up the library or doing a hard sell about the lack of resources in T Town.
He tells me that the female teacher is the pride of the town. She is the first female Khamu student to get a scholarship to study outside. He seems to have coached her and had kiddingly warned her that if she didn’t come back to teach, he would “kill” her. He is Hmong and confirms that there is a high desire to learn languages in the outer villages.
Maybe this is just the first course. We move up to the school where a banquet has been prepared. After a few hours of eating and drinking, the female teacher signals to me from a distance that I should try to escape and join her and two other teachers for dinner. There are several chicken dishes and I assume that they don't eat like this every day. I have no idea if all this fanfare is for me or if it is for the male teacher's birthday as he claims. It is quiet without the alcohol and we talk at length. It is probably a relief to them that I don't bring up the topic of education again. They ask many questions about my world though they hardly seem ignorant about it. They talk about Bush, war and developed countries. They ask what I think about T Town and I can flatter them without being insincere. T Town is a quiet and beautiful place. The air is sweet and there are fireflies at night. I like the students and find them earnest and sincere. The teachers are good people and are doing the best with what they have.
5.7 Photo
Teacher A wants a photo of me so that she won't forget me again. I wonder if these great feasts were held so that I would not forget them. They don't bring up the library again, but I am sure it is on their minds. I suspect that they don’t ask for promises because they know they will be broken. Teachers come, but mostly go. Every year, thousands of rural teachers quit because of the low salaries and the problem of not being paid regularly. The social studies teacher and the male English teacher seem ready to leave. Only those who have married seem more settled. One administrator tells me that when teacher training events are held, they hope that a city teacher will fall in love with a rural teacher and move there. Constant comment is made about the female teacher being single and on several occasions I overhear comments that I should cohabit with her. How else could help be secured? Even the international organisations seem to operate more on favouritism and whim than on a systematic policy. T Town has definitely been neglected when compared to other districts. On the last morning she addresses herself as my younger sister, but oddly does not call me teacher or older brother, but “poo bao,” which is usually used for unmarried male teenagers. My true wish is to just call her honoured teacher.
On the way to the bus station, I drop by to say good-bye to Mr. Boun B and find that he has been waiting for me. He is clutching a book and wants me to explain why the answer key does not match the text. It is obviously a misprint as no sentence will ever fit into a crossword puzzle. Sadly, in this remote town, it is unlikely that someone will drop by soon to help him with his questions.
5.8 T Town: Looking back
T Town is green and lush, but when it comes to education, it feels like the town is waiting for falling rain. The verdant green is the persistent desire to learn despite the ongoing drought of resources. The rain is the unpredictable arrival of those needed resources and the promise of better learning opportunities.
The obstacles are heavier for some. Money and power politics favour only the few. Motivated female students must fight through gender bias. Ethnic minority students must make their own shelters and fish for their own food in order to survive. Nonetheless, one of the top students in the class is female and many readily admit that the Khamu and Hmong work the hardest. Success does not necessarily come from institutional learning, but from the efforts of those who keep their motivation, look for resources and devise their own learning strategies.
T Town is another fork in the road in a student's journey. If students want to continue learning, they must leave T Town as they have already exhausted the learning opportunities there. Some give up, others don't have qualifying scores and most do not have the money to leave.
