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Program Profile: Mongolia Year

Program Description
Volunteer Role
Placement Sites, Housing and Food
Length of Program
Cost of Program
Requirements

Program Description

Beginning in August of 2008 WorldTeach will send volunteers to Mongolia to teach in schools in the provincial (aimag) capitals, and also in Ulaanbaatar. This exciting new, and challenging, program is a partnership between WorldTeach and the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science to bring native English speakers to the classrooms in the public high schools and community colleges of Mongolia.

In 2005 Mongolia adopted English as their second language. Mongolia was however, for many years looking westward to Russia for assistance and for educational support, and so for many years the second language of Mongolia was Russian. Many of the Russian foreign language teachers have been since trained in English and are now teaching English, but the demand for English teachers, especially native English speakers, is high and increasing. This is true not only in Ulaanbaatar, but throughout the country.

This placement is limited to twenty volunteers each year.

Volunteer Role

Volunteers will teach English in the schools. You will be a fully functioning member of the school staff, teaching a full-load of classes and assuming other responsibilities that teachers are expected to take.

Besides teaching English, it is hoped that you will bring some extracurricular activities to your schools. These can be whatever you are interested in, and that the students would like to participate in. These enriching activities expose the students to a wide variety of experiences that are both fun and educational for them.

You will live at your school. Volunteers who teach at community colleges will have teacher apartments in the dormitories of their schools. These are likely to have space for cooking facilities in your apartment, as well as your own toilet facilities. You may have a separate bedroom as well.

Volunteers who teach at high schools in the aimag centers will live in the dormitories of the schools where they teach. Volunteers will have their own rooms. They may share toilet facilities with the students if there are not teacher apartments. Cooking facilities may be in your room. These dormitory rooms are meant for four or more students, so they are relatively spacious.

Volunteers will receive $120 per month as a living stipend for each month that they teach. From this, volunteers will cover their living expenses, including food. This is the stipend that the other volunteers receive. They report that it is adequate, but does not allow for including much imported food in your diet.

Volunteers will cook for themselves, and have access to cooking facilities. They may also be able to eat lunch at their schools.

There is an outside chance volunteers will be able to live in the traditional nomadic housing called In Mongolia a “ger” (and in Russian a “yert.”) Volunteers from other groups report that these are a fascinating experience, if you are able to warm and cook over a small stove, and live without indoor bathroom facilities. Gers do have electricity, and so lights. Any gers that you might have the chance to live in (and no one will be assigned to live in a ger who does not request to do so) would be in the yard/compound of a host family, and be situated very close to the ger of the family and/or their wooden structure home.
The traditional diet is primarily that of a migrant people: meat and dairy products. Beef and mutton are widely available, and reasonably priced. Potatoes are the most common root vegetable, but you can also find onions and cabbage, and carrots. Other vegetables are more costly and in general are imports, as are most fruits. Dairy products are available, including yoghurts you have never seen before (even dried!) Grocery stores carry breads and dumplings (stuffed and unstuffed), and sweet cakes. Eggs are available. Tea is very popular and often taken before meals.

In Ulaanbaatar most things you would find at home are available in the State Department Store, but prices are close to those in the United States, which will strain your budget if you plan on living on the stipend you will be given.

Restaurants are reasonable, and you can buy an adequate meal in Ulaanbaatar for two dollars. You can also spend ten dollars in one of the more up-scale hotels in the city.

11-12 months, from early August to early July of the following year. After orientation, volunteers are contracted to work at their host school for a full academic year and attend an End of Service conference with the entire WorldTeach group.

Orientation is three weeks long. School begins the first week of September. There will be a vacation during Mongolian New Year, which is in the winter.

Cost of Program

US $4,990. The Mongolia program is partially-funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science but the bulk of the costs are carried by the volunteer.

The program cost includes pre-departure information and preparation, round-trip international airfare from a US departure city, visa, intensive in-country orientation training, health insurance, meals and housing during orientation and throughout your teaching service, and 24 hour in-country support.

Please read more about costs and services.

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Requirements

Volunteers must be native English speakers and have a bachelor's degree. Our partners in Mongolia also require that volunteers be under the age of 45, in excellent health, and free of sexually-transmitted infections. Volunteers in the aimag centers will have some medical infrastructure in their cities, but they may have to come to Ulaanbaatar for treatment for anything but the basics. Transportation is challenging, but it exists between the aimag capitals, where all volunteers will be placed. It is important therefore that all volunteers are physically healthy and without any emotional issues, and that they don’t anticipate problems with their health.

Successful volunteers will be mature, independent, and have a genuine interest in teaching. In particular, they will be flexible and able to meet unexpected challenges, since this will be the first year of a new program. This means a good sense of humor is likely to be a top asset!