Amid a blistering heatwave in southern Bangladesh, the Grade 2 classroom at Bhorer Alo Learning Centre in the camp for Rohingya refugees is filled with children energetically engaged in their English lessons.
When their teacher Sadia asks for a volunteer to read the English words written on the blackboard, all the learners eagerly raise their hands. One by one, they walk up to the front of the class and use a ruler to spell out words beginning with the letter “C.” When they finish, the entire class breaks out in synchronized applause, eliciting a proud smile from each of the children as they walk back to their seat.
Sadia, 22, has been the primary English teacher at this learning center since 2020. She is from the Bangladeshi host community and became a teacher as it was her childhood dream. For the past 4 years, she has been dedicated to helping Rohingya children learn in the camps for refugees, which she admits hasn’t always been easy.
“We needed to create a [conducive] learning environment for the children,” Sadia explains. “When I first began teaching, their concentration was low in class and they did not have good capabilities.”
Along with almost 1,000 teachers from both the Rohingya and host communities, Sadia participated in monthly training sessions provided by UNICEF’s partners. These sessions covered topics such as classroom management and lesson planning to help boost teachers’ skills and to address challenges they encounter in the demanding context of the camps for the Rohingya community.
In addition, when the Myanmar curriculum was introduced in July 2022 for primary grades, teachers received orientation on the textbooks as well as teacher guides.
To foster collaborative learning, teachers engage in teacher learning circles where they review their learning experience and discuss classroom challenges and possible solutions. These professional development opportunities were supported by UNICEF with funding from GPE.
Based on the trainings and teacher learning circles, Sadia began making changes in her teaching methods.
To better engage her learners, she started teaching the alphabet with word-making exercises and using group work and role-play exercises to enable them to become active participants in class. She began assigning tasks for them to complete at home for the next day and regularly reviews past lessons to ensure the children retain what they have learned.
