Changes at my school

It's not yet a month since I returned to Peace Corps service Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I've noticed changes at my Digah village school since my unexpected departure from Azerbaijan due to a car accident in July 2012.

In April 2012 the woman director of my school was replaced by another woman director, Ulviyya. She appears to be making progress instituting changes in teacher and student attendance.

There are some physical changes to the school grounds. Little trash is around the school yard and I've noticed school boys picking up trash under the supervision of male teachers. The soccer field is smooth instead of lumpy with dirt, and weeds have been cut down in the playing area. Many more plantings of bushes and flowers enhance the school which was built in 2010.

Compare above photo from 2011 with school photo below taken April, 2013.

One noticeable change is an earlier school start time at 8:30 AM instead of 9. This also means that children with a last class are more likely to stay at school than go home because they're hungry. Another change is the entry door being watched by the director as well as by her deputies. Teachers and students are not allowed to leave the building during class time. Between some classes, students are sent outside to run off their energy instead of running in the halls and stairs. Unheard of last year!

Many upper grade students continue to go to tutors also known as “repeaters”, and few attend classes. But it is noticeable to me that there are more children staying for classes, and deputies regularly stick their heads into classrooms for attendance checks. Deputies routinely go to the teachers' room to send teachers to their classrooms so that students can't use the excuse that their teachers weren't in class.

The new director also uses one power tool I've learned over my years of work. She conducts teachers' meetings in her office instead of in the teachers' room. That is, she has the teachers come to her rather than her going to the teachers room. I'm encouraged by her changes.