Category: Learning Centers

One of the booming industries in Sabah is the food industry. Restaurants serving various Asian foods and even western fast-food restaurants are being opened, so there is an unending demand for good and trusted cooks and other kitchen staff, waiters and waitresses, and cashiers. Goducate hopes to train our current and ex-students to meet this demand.

First we need a good trainer. Our search for one ended in July, when our previous part-time literacy teacher, Teacher H, who has also been a cook for many years in an Indian restaurant, came to ask me whether he could join us again. He stopped teaching over a year ago, when his wife took over his teaching duties. Although he is enjoying his work as a cook, he says that nothing can compare with the joy of helping others through teaching literacy at our centers. After our discussion he agreed to come back, not as a literacy teacher, but as a cookery trainer in our livelihood program.

Last month, Teacher H started his cookery class with 11 students at the Goducate livelihood-training section situated in Goducate’s main literacy center. His students consisted of some intermediate-grade pupils at our literacy centers, some of our young assistant teachers, and others from neighboring communities. An important feature about the cookery training is that trainees will learn not only culinary skills but also good workplace attitudes.

Having been a Goducate teacher in the past, Teacher H understands Goducate style of combining character training with skills training. He has also been successful in training two others to be cooks—his own children. Although Teacher H is considered by his boss to be vital to the restaurant, his two children, who are now also working at the same restaurant, are able to hold the fort when he is not around. They are also earning enough to financially support the family.

Having trained his own children to be cooks, he wants to do likewise for others who are willing to learn, so that they will be able to help themselves. As he told his trainees, if they perform well during the training, he can recommend them to his restaurant boss or to other restaurant owners.

I and a colleague from the Facilitators Network of Singapore (FNS) visited a sample of the Goducate Learning Centers in Sabah to assess the teaching practices there in order to see how we might be able to help them. We observed classes ranging from level 1 to level 4.

The community being helped by Goducate here are Filipinos from the southern Philippines who came over to escape the civil strife, unemployment, and poverty they were facing in their home country. As undocumented aliens (stateless people), their children are not entitled to state education. Goducate has been training the more educated of the mothers there how to teach the children literacy and numeracy and primary school lessons.

To our pleasant surprise we observed that a Philippines curriculum was well established and standardised across the centers. The dedication and enthusiasm of the mothers who were doubling up as teachers was striking. Instead of dampening their spirits, the poor environment they live and teach in, often swampy or flooded, together with their limited resources, strengthened their resolve to do their “best” for their students. The teachers not only displayed a high level of involvement but also a measure of accountability and a high degree of motivation, as demonstrated by their passion to constantly upgrade themselves in order to benefit their students.

A few students who have “graduated” from the learning centers have become main or assistant teachers. This engenders a sense of community within the centers. Some other students still studying at the centers at a higher class level are helping as assistant teachers in the lower classes. This gives them a sense of responsibility and experience, and also teaches them about giving back to society. Having assistant teachers allows all students to get sufficient attention, especially in class sizes of greater than 10-15 students.

However, there was minimum interaction between the teachers and students, with teachers feeding information to students but very little discussion about the topic being taught. There was not much encouragement for students who answered correctly or finished a task on time, nor was there group sharing.

We had informal conversations and interviews with the teachers and assistant teachers. We also conducted focus groups. We asked questions pertaining to the highlights and lowlights of teaching, and how to become a good teacher. The teachers were very forthcoming and cooperative. The various answers that we received, consistent among which was a need for training to become a better teacher, will help us at FNS to prepare a program that will enable them to become facilitative and interactive teachers.

Guest writer Parul, Volunteer from Singapore

How time flies. Goducate’s first literacy center in Sabah celebrated its 4th anniversary last month. The day-long program included a variety of performances by different classes of songs, poems, and cultural and modern dances, a singing contest in which students and teachers participated (with teachers from other centers as judges), a beauty contest, and an afternoon packed with outdoor games (again with teachers and students participating). We were privileged to have a visitor from Singapore give an inspirational talk and be one of the judges.

Every year this center (the KSO center) has celebrated its anniversary without realizing its influence is on the other centers. At the time of KSO’s 4th anniversary, we had 25 Goducate Literacy Centers in Sabah. By now there are 27.

KSO is where many dreams have been moulded as both teachers and pupils have gained new perspectives on life. KSO has also been instrumental in the training of effective and efficient educators. It serves as a model center for the other Goducate centers.

Some 30 teachers have been through this center. Their contribution to the development and influence of KSO is immeasurable. Some of them have now taken on roles as trainers, supervisor, livelihood manager, and health worker. Some are still teaching in this center. Some are teaching in other centers. Many have to help out in newly opened centers. Some have found jobs (for example, as waitresses, hair stylists, housekeepers) but continue to teach some sessions at the literacy centers, in some cases literacy classes, in others livelihood training. Some have left the area, and have started literacy centers in their new locations. A few of them have been to other towns to help other organizations train their teachers.

When it comes to its facilities, this main center (or “mother-center”) has undergone many changes. At the start somebody’s living room was used as classroom. Then a one-classroom building was built. Now KSO has three classrooms (one of which is our audiovisual room) serving five teaching sessions a day. Two classrooms are used twice a day, and the audiovisual room once a day. There is also a livelihood-training area consisting of a mini-kitchen, a sewing area, and a hair salon. In addition KSO has a library and a playground, and it is the base of our mobile clinic.

KSO has reached this stage despite having to face many challenges, but these have led to a unity that has contributed to its development.