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Where we do it > Mongolia - Maria Wells, VSO Education Management Adviser, Ulaanbaatar

Name: Maria Wells
Location: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Position: VSO Education Management Adviser

Since 1990 revenue and expenditure in the Mongolian education system has dropped by 50 per cent. There is now a nation-wide shortage of books, paper and other school supplies. Teachers are being lost to newly privatised companies offering higher wages, and poor quality of education is demotivating students so dropout rates are rising. More than 20% of primary school children stop going to school because of high travel or meal costs, lack of interest in study, poor living standards and health problems.

Lotus School in Ulaanbataar is an organisation designed to provide a home and education for approximately 140 orphans, street children, abandoned or abused children in Mongolia. But the organisation faces challenges: finding and managing the funds to ensure the running of the school; working with strict official bureaucracy; and providing an appropriate education for children who have missed school or who can’t attend.

Maria Wells, a VSO Education Management Adviser to Lotus School has very straightforward reasons as to why she became a volunteer with VSO: “Before I applied to volunteer with VSO I was the head teacher of a primary school and nursery. I decided to become a volunteer because I wanted to do something practical, real and tangible about world poverty. Also I was looking for a change and at 50 years old decided to take the plunge and have an adventure; my family thought it was a mid-life crisis!”

Maria’s objectives at the organisation are threefold: to promote pupil-focused teaching to senior figures of at the organisation’s primary school and kindergarten; to introduce positive behaviour management; and to advise on the education of older children who may not be pupils of the centre’s schools.

The work at the organisation is varied and exercises all of the skills Maria has learned in her career: “Every morning I visit all the classrooms and once or twice a week join one lesson which I then give feedback to the teacher on. I advise the school manager and director on school issues and the day to day running of the school. I run weekly training sessions for teachers and occasional training for the women who act as ‘mothers’ for the children on behavior management.” These training sessions are vital as they ensure Maria’s skills stay in Ulaanbataar. It also means that her expertise will reach a wider audience because the teachers and ‘mothers’ will be able to train others and so her skills will be dispersed in ever widening circles.

The results of Maria’s work at Lotus School can be seen close up: “My greatest achievement has been changing the ethos of the school so that children are happy and want to be there – this is vital when the drop-out rates of children are high. There are two children in particular who on my arrival would not stay in the classroom, were aggressive towards their teachers and very miserable often trying to run away; they are both now happy and their learning is making progress. This was achieved by training the teachers and advising them of the particular needs of emotionally traumatised children.”

Life outside work is full of simple pleasures: “No convenience foods mean that cooking from scratch takes up most of the early evening. Then I might do some reading or sewing while listening to the BBC world service during weekdays. At the weekend I’ll meet up with other volunteers or local friends for a beer and a visit to the ballet now and then.”

Maria feels that it’s these small things that really helped her get over one of the greatest challenges of her volunteering experience…the cold weather! “I wasn’t prepared for it really. It’s incredible how the people living in the gers which are small round felt huts can get up in the morning in this cold!”

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