What is school life like in Mongolia? (boy's view)

[question from Louisa, Sam, Ed, Danielle, Miles, Anna, John, Victoria, Jake, Tom B, Louisa and Patrick]

Carrying on from last week's edition, this week I asked Bud, an 11 year old schoolboy from Ulaanbaatar about what school life is like in Mongolia. As Bud had previously been in a school in England (his family worked in Manchester for a few years, before returning to Mongolia), his answers were particularly interesting:

1. What subjects do you learn at school? Maths, Advanced Maths (Bud's school is a specialist maths school), Mongolia, English, History, Biology, P.E, Art, Physics and Geometry.

2. What do you like about school, and what do you not like?

:) I really like seeing my friends at school. There are 46 people in my class, so I have many friends to play with. I like Maths, English, Mongolian and P.E lessons. My maths teacher is really nice and teaches very well.

:( My school has some very strict rules. We have to walk around the school following a particular system - we cannot take short cuts, and we always have to walk on the right-hand side of the corridors. Running and shouting is definitely not allowed! If we break these rules, or misbehave in class, then we are given punishments. Usually the punishment is to wash the classroom after the end of the school day. I have had to do this when I was late for school! If someone is really bad then they may be smacked by the teachers, or may even have to leave the school. Other things I do not like are that I have to wake up early for school (at 6am), and that sometimes the lessons can be boring.

3. What games do you play with your friends? I play basketball and PC games with my school friends. I really like to play football, but we are not allowed to do this - the teachers think that we will hit the ball into the windows. We have to play our football in secret, so that the staff do not see us! My favourite team is Manchester United.

4. What are the main differences between English and Mongolian schools? (N.B. Bud studied in England for a few years before returning to Mongolia).

In England I had one teacher who taught us all our classes, whereas in Mongolia I have a different teacher for each of my subjects. Also, my English school was smaller (200 children, not the 2000 that are in Bud's current school), but it had a bigger playground! In Mongolia boys and girls don't really play together, but in England they did. I think that English school is easier than Mongolian school. I had a real shock when I came back to Mongolia - the maths that we were learning in Mongolia was a lot more difficult than the maths that we were learning in England. I had to catch up quickly!

5. How long it takes for you to get to school?
I have to take a bus to school. It takes me about 5 minutes to walk to the bus stop. Then I take a 15 minute-bus ride. My bus drops me off very near to school.

This edition of Project Mongolia was brought to you with the help of Bud and his mother Urnaa. To both of them many thanks!