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18 FACULTY OF EDUCATION THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND
“After one year I remember saying ‘I don’t think the job’s finished and I think I should stay another year’. Then after that I stopped
talking.”
Overall Elise’s experience in India covered almost 15 years, 11 as Principal of Saibaba Central School. Elise considers the New Zealand
education system, and the teachers who implement it, to be among the best in the world. But she was amazed by the level of dedication on
the part of her students in India and the importance they and their parents put in education. Now she feels each country could learn from
the other.
While her experiences are based on one school in a country of vast diversity, in India she was blown away by the level of respect she
and her teachers received from the pupils and their level of concentration in the classroom. But she also believes that if the Indian methods
of teaching were complemented with New Zealand pedagogy, that develop skills and the ability to think critically, the pupils would be more
able to apply the vast amounts of knowledge that they learn.
Elise started her teaching degree at the University of Auckland in 1990 where she “devoured everything I heard”. After graduation she
taught at Auckland’s Point Chevalier Primary School, a role that she loved, but the desire to travel took hold. She travelled in India and spent
time at a small, very basic school in Andhra Pradesh, then went on to the United Kingdom where she worked as a literacy advisor, guiding
the implementation of the UK National Literacy Framework in Devon. But she simply “couldn’t get India out of my system”.
News that the under-resourced school she had worked at in India was under threat of closure inspired Elise to return and offer her help
for a year.
“When I arrived I was told ‘you’re now the principal!’”
The value of education
When New Zealand teacher Elise Sadler arrived in India at the Saibaba Central
School in the state of Andhra Pradesh she planned to use her short stay to change
the way the staff taught their 250 pupils. She left, only to return again... and again.
The third time they asked her to be the Principal. She stayed 11 years and ended up
being a pupil and a leader.