Global Schoolroom has its origins in 2005 when two Dublin teachers, Gwen Brennan and Garret Campbell, traveled to India, not solely as tourists but rather with the intention of getting a little under the skin of the sub-continent and learning more about the challenges faced by teachers in that part of the world. Both Brennan and Campbell had considerable travel experience and had done short periods of aid work in Africa, South America and Mongolia. They had also been involved in teacher education both at home and abroad. Through a series of contacts in Ireland they were introduced to the Northeast of India.

The geographically isolated Northeast of India is socially and philosophically a part of India which is almost utterly separated from the rest of the country. It is ‘precariously linked’ to the rest of India through a narrow corridor, in places only 20 kilometers wide (Guha, 2004). It is a confluence of approximately 350 tribes with more than 200 languages and dialects. While the guide books refer to India’s best kept secret, the reality is widespread poverty despite the apparent economic growth further south. According to the Planning Commission’s estimates of 1999 to 2000, over 40% of the rural population of the region were below the poverty line. This compares with 7.47% of the region’s urban population.

Education in the various states which make up the Northeast is of particular concern as many schools operate with class sizes in excess of 50 pupils, some with more than 100, in very cramped conditions and with very few resources (Singh, 2004). In fact, the pupil-teacher ratio has increased in many northeastern states in recent years (Kumar De, 2004) and there is a very high drop-out rate (Singh, 2004). Added to this is a curriculum which leaves little room for child-centred activities.

The problems in education do not end there as teacher training, where it exists, is often inadequate, with many teachers having no formal training whatsoever. Most of the teachers at higher secondary schools are trained but the teachers in high schools and middle schools are mostly untrained (Kumar De, 2004). The same can be said for primary schools. There are some notable exceptions, with the state of Mizoram having a very high percentage of trained teachers and a higher than national average literacy rate, while the state of Tripura has the lowest percentage of trained teachers. The 1991 Census of India revealed that the national literacy rate was 52.2%. By 2004 this was 65.4%. In 2001 the states of Assam and Meghalaya displayed the lowest literacy rates in all of India, 64.26 and 63.31 respectively. Another major concern is the overall low level of involvement in education amongst females across all the states in the Northeast (Ghosh, 2004).

Over the last number of years, missionary orders have worked in this part of India and have built a large number of schools. These missionary schools are generally held in high regard (Lahiri, 2004) with some schools having a 95% non-Catholic school community. In some places, the missionary orders have gone on to develop technical schools and adult education programmes, offering whole communities educational opportunity. While they have had general success in the bricks and mortar issues, the difficulty of untrained teachers is theirs too. The religious orders generally recruit their own teachers and pay them out of their own funds. While they teach the state curricula, their salaries are less than state salaries. Despite this inequity, the bonus for these teachers is that they are working in a good environment with the possibility of further training.

Having met and listened to the voiced needs of almost 300 teachers in 2006, Brennan and Campbell decided that any efforts to address the shortcomings in teacher education would need to include the presentation of content and a space for both personal and group reflection. They also found that the level of confidence amongst many teachers was extremely low and many voiced the concern that they were not being supported by the school. Brennan and Campbell believed that a formal training programme was needed with full university accreditation and the possibility to achieve a recognised qualification. This they believed, would provide an exposure to international best practice in education, give teachers an opportunity to reflect on their own professionalism and a method by which their efforts could be rewarded. These considerations eventually lead to the Global Schoolroom Diploma in Teacher Education.

Some issues were yet to be addressed concerning the movement of personnel from Ireland to India as volunteers. From 2006 to 2009 this was done with tourist visas, which prevented any meaningful engagement with the state education boards and restricted the work of Global Schoolroom to missionary schools. However by 2010, we had received recognition from the Indian Embassy in Ireland and had developed a very good working relationship with the Ambassador and his staff.

The Ambassador is now involved in part of the volunteer briefing and is supportive of our plans to engage with government schools. This development, together with the significant progress now being made in securing local accreditation for our programmme (ideally in the form of a B.Ed from a university in the north east of India), now puts us in an excellent position to forge strong links with the local Indian educational authorities.

We have developed an equally strong relationship with the Honorary Ugandan Consul to Ireland and through her and Self Help Africa (www.selfhelpafrica.net) we were encouraged to begin working in Uganda. Meetings with senior personnel in the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports have resulted in a pilot Global Schoolroom Programme being put in place in 2 hubs in Uganda. The Ministry has appointed a team to focus on teacher training in those private secondary schools set up by local communities (the schools where we have identified that there is the greatest need for the programme). This team is now actively involved with us in this pilot progamme on the understanding that should this programme be judged as successful, a more comprehensive roll out of the programme will take place across Uganda.

In tandem with this development we are working with local Ugandan Universities to secure accreditation in Uganda for the programme.

In 2009 we began recruiting from Northern Ireland, in an effort to make this an all-Ireland initiative. This year we are recruiting from the rest of the UK as well to further develop the global dimension. In the coming years it is hoped that teachers from the USA may be involved.

Meanwhile one of our core goals is to make the programme sustainable locally and ultimately see it adopted and facilitated by teachers living and working in their own communities. As soon as practicable we would like to be in a position to enrol volunteer teachers from countries such as India and Uganda – not just Ireland the UK. This goal will come a step closer in 2011 when five Global Schoolroom graduates from India will spend a month in Ireland where they will receive additional training and support from Global Schoolroom and UCD. They will then join with the teachers from Ireland and the UK as part of the Global Schoolroom tutor team. This will strengthen the involvement and engagement of the teaching profession in all 3 countries.