Teaching

Product Details

Our teaching project in India gives volunteers a unique opportunity to make a practical contribution to an area of great need. The main focus of our work in India is with the numerous schools and educational bodies in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. A good command of the English language is indispensable to a young Indian who wants to get a good job and have a successful career. Unfortunately, for many Indians this is extremely difficult to achieve.

As a volunteer teacher in India you will not only provide relief to the often overworked and underpaid teachers, but you will also bring fresh new ideas into the classroom, and of course a good, if not fluent level of English. Depending on the placement the volunteer could be teaching children as young as three or adults up to age 23, and the average class size is 30.

The volunteer's role in India is not to follow a syllabus - the English department can do that - but rather to inject a bit of life into English lessons, to improve the children’s listening and speaking skills and to give them the confidence to use the English that they've been copying down onto paper for all these years! The usual method of teaching in India is delightfully old-fashioned, being based almost entirely on copying sentences from the board that have no real meaning and contain words the kids can't even pronounce. Learning is by rote, and this is another area the volunteer can help with. Indian teachers will be fascinated by your teaching methods, and hopefully take some of the more active learning hints on board to use in the future.

All volunteers are allocated a supervisor within their placement, and also have the backup of our staff in the local office and the UK office. Accommodation is with local ‘host’ families; as well as providing support, advice and an insight into Indian family life, host families also provide three meals per day which tend to be traditional recipes and give volunteers a great opportunity to sample a range of Indian delights!