Calling All English Teachers for Madagascar!!!
Posted on 03 February 2010
My name is Stacey Williams and I am currently volunteering as an English teacher for Azafady in Fort Dauphin which is in the south east region of Madagascar. The demand for English lessons here is outstanding, but unfortunately we only have volunteer English Teachers available until June. In order to keep continuity with the English lessons we are looking for TEFL qualified volunteers to take over the classes currently being taught and join Azafady’s team in Fort Dauphin. As I’m sure you would appreciate when learning a second language, or for some students a third language, a lot of knowledge can be lost if lessons lose stability so we are eager to get more English Teachers out here as soon as possible!
Fort Dauphin is an amazing place to work, I volunteered in July 2007 for Azafady’s Pioneer programme and upon completion of my studies in England and my TEFL certificate I simply had to come back and jumped at the opportunity to help the people of Fort Dauphin through teaching.
Teaching in Madagascar is certainly an experience worth volunteering for. Having taught in schools in England, I was pleasantly surprised at how enthusiastic all of the students are here in comparison with home. You are always greeted with a class full of smiling students and students arriving half an hour early just because they want to practise their speaking skills. We even have two boys coming to the pre-intermediate class who walk from Mahatalaky – a staggering 8 hours walk each way – just to have the chance to take these lessons! I find myself leaving each lesson with a smile on my face because of how rewarding it feels to teach such a deserving group of people.
The life style here is fantastic and although sometimes drastically different to home - it is usually in a positive sense. I have made some amazing friends here and the overall atmosphere is a happy one to be in. Where else can you go to the beach on your lunch break!?
As for the work we are doing, we are currently teaching the unemployed adults at four different levels (Beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate) which each have three 1.5hr lessons a week. This work load is currently divided between two full-time and one part-time English teacher. As well as the unemployed adult classes, we are also running a class for the teachers of the local primary schools. This will hopefully prove to be a sustainable and far-reaching investment as the teachers can then improve the English that is taught to their students.
The working timetable gives ample time for lesson planning and there are a collection of resources already available to use, although in my opinion you can never have enough teaching resources!
This is a voluntary post for a minimum of 6 months and unfortunately Azafady cannot provide any contribution to your living costs here. However we have a great team in our London office that can offer advice and tips on methods of fundraising and the cost of living here is, of course, much lower than that at home. For full details of a budget to work towards or any other queries please don’t hesitate to email either myself or Mark Jacobs.
mark@azafady.org
swilliams@nescot.ac.uk
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Hi, i’m a senior majoring in English at Plattsburgh State University in New York and i just wanted more information on teaching English in Madagascar. Thank you and i hope to hear from you soon.
-Abisola Mojeed