Two Swansea schools are developing close links with some of their contemporaries from Bangladesh.
Teachers from the Bhola island area of the Asian country have visited the city to help foster cultural exchanges and share teaching experiences with Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe and Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Lon Las.
The visit took place thanks to a five-year British Council Connecting Classrooms project and follows on from a Swansea delegation trip to Bangladesh earlier in the year.
Part of the visit to Swansea saw local teachers recreating lessons in Bangladesh to mirror the classroom sizes and limited resources available there. The Bangladeshi visitors also made a trip to the Civic Centre to see how Swansea Council goes about its business.
It’s hoped electronic link-ups and more exchange trips will take place in future so teachers and pupils can stay in touch and share ideas about teaching and learning.
David Williams, Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe Headteacher, travelled to Bangladesh in March and found the experience to be eye-opening.
He said:
“The difference between Bangladesh and the UK is staggering. Many of the children there don’t have the chance to be educated because they have to support their families by working 12-hour shifts of hard labour every day. And this means those children who do go to school thoroughly appreciate education.
“The schoolchildren might live in slums but they arrive in school looking immaculate in their school uniforms and behave impeccably. The sheer size of the population and the scale of the poverty does mean though that even the children who do go to school are held back by classroom conditions, class sizes and limited resources.
“Classes of over 90 children are commonplace in Bangladesh and the children are often taught in buildings with zinc roofs and walls when the weather outside is very hot. The heat can be unbearable.”
Mr Williams sees certain similarities between Welsh and Bangladeshi people and he thinks this maybe a crucial factor in why the link-up is working so well.
He said: “The Bangladeshi people are fiercely patriotic and, like the Welsh, have a minority language that they’re very keen to preserve. At the start of each school day, they raise the national flag and sing the national anthem together. It’s very inspiring.
“One thing that came across from their visit here was how impressed the teachers were with our facilities, resources, staff training and curriculum.
“They only have two or three computers per school in the area of Bangladesh we visited and I guess one of the lessons we can all learn here in the UK is never to take education for granted.
“We’re very much looking forward to strengthening the links we’ve developed in the near future.”
Cllr Mary Jones, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said:
“This is a wonderful scheme for both the teachers and pupils of the Swansea schools involved as well as their contemporaries in Bangladesh.
“It allows the opportunity to learn about different cultures and teaching methods and will progress into a project that will be beneficial to many people.
“The world is truly becoming a global village nowadays and this scheme will help forge lifelong friendships between people who live several thousands miles away from each other.”
