Workshop allowances

“When is the teacher training workshop?” asks a teacher.

“It will be in April” I reply. “From the workshops you’ve attended before what have you found most useful and applicable to your classes?”

“They’re all good. Make the allowance more this time.”

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The expectation of allowances bothers me to no end. I’ve gotten used to it, but I dislike how transportation allowances are factored into every gathering. I also don’t know what to do with allowances I receive. Last week I attended an HIV and AIDS sector workshop and received transportation allowance for two days. It helps to have someone cover transportation since I don’t have my own vehicle. Then again, people with vehicles get the same allowance anyway. What I fail to understand is why allowances are always more than is needed. For example, even though transport would cost 15 000 kwacha tops, the allowance would be for 40 000 kwacha. So, workshop allowances become a source of income and for some is the incentive to attend. I don’t want to be a complete pessimist, but I wonder how many people attend workshops with the intention of learning something.

I tried to explain without much success that in some countries, people pay to attend workshops, not the other way around. NGOs and other organisation have fuelled the workshop culture here. Someone is always hosting something. However, my impression is that very few people seem to care about what happens after the workshop. Organisations like the one I work with also have very little follow-up with the participants after the workshop. I’ve started to ask questions like what teaching aids have you been able to use in your classroom? From what you learned about child-headed households, what kind of support have you been able to give the orphans in your class? Unfortunately, asking for feedback usually just brings up the insufficiency of the allowance. Considering that some teachers are not regularly get paid or if they do, they take home between 100-200 000 kwacha (25-50 US$) a month, getting a 40 000 kwacha per day allowance for a multi-day workshop really supplements their income.

As for the allowances I get in the workshops, I’ve decided to set the money I don’t use for transportation aside and next January pay the tuition of some kids to secondary school. It’s not sustainable because I don’t know if I would continue paying for someone’s tuition all the way through high school, but if I don’t set it aside I will probably be used to food, alcohol, or entertainment.

Allowances.

At the conclusion of a Ministry of Education meeting I attended today (sponsored by a Flemish organisation), each person is given a transportation and sitting allowance - 50 000 Kwacha (a little over 10 US$). It’s not a lot of money, but I am having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that people at any kind of formal gathering expect this money. According to an NGO worker, some people will not attend a meeting/workshop that does not have an allowance. So in effect, the organisers must offer compensation to those who attend and I guess guarantee some kind of attendance.

It was obvious that people stayed to the end of the meeting for the money and I should not be surprised at the number of people blatantly napping. I had a hard time deciding if I take this money. My thinking process in the end was if I don’t take the money it will probably just go into someone else’s pocket. I could give the money to my organisation (which technically provided my transportation), but no one else does that and again it would probably just go into a pocket. I took the money, although now I’m not sure what to do with it.