“Being a Trinity examiner is hard work as anyone who watches all those children going in and out of the examination room will agree but what rewarding experiences the examiner has! Experiences that no ordinary tourist can hope to have. I visited eight schools on my recent visit to South India and met children from many other schools and inevitably I experienced a mix of different emotions.
I was NOSTALGIC for my own early schooldays – a very long time ago – when we girls too wore plaits (known as pigtails!) and my brother wore shorts till he was 12 and we all leapt to our feet when a visitor entered the classroom.
I was CHARMED by the eager little 7 and 8 year olds, who had so much to tell me in English - their second or third or even fourth language! It is so hard to get British children to learn even a little of one other language.
I was IMPRESSED by the amount of homework that most of the children do so willingly after school and by the ambitions that they harbour for their future careers.
I was AMAZED by the way teachers in some schools I visited coped so effectively with such large classes . Over 50 in some private schools? My husband, a teacher, remembers going on strike with his colleagues in the 1980’s in his state school to get class sizes under 30.
I was DELIGHTED with the delicious, wholesome school dinners I frequently shared with staff and children. Jamie Oliver – Britain’s famous young TV chef, whose recent campaign to get rid of junk food in British schools actually resulted in Government action on that front, should come to India!
I was PLEASED that, as always with the Graded examinations in spoken English, children enjoyed the experience and gained confidence from communicating with a person from another country.
And so I am HOPEFUL that success will build on success and that there will be such a demand for this exam that I will have another opportunity one day to come back to India as a Trinity examiner.”
