Where Are They Now? Pav's Story

This story was written by TLG Public Relations Officer, Anne-Marie White.

Welcome to the first instalment of our brand new series, Where are they now: Stories of TLG Alumni.

Every fortnight over the coming months we’ll feature a former TLG volunteer whose current career pathway has been significantly influenced by their involvement with TLG. This week we’re featuring Paveena “Pav” Bavanchelvam, who changed her path of pursuing a career in disaster and infection control, to be a full time teacher in the rural town of Meekatharra. 

Pav on the Rural Program at Kondinin Primary School in December 2019.

Pav studied a Bachelors of Health Sciences at Curtin University. Initially, she was planning to complete a Masters of Epidemiology. However, after getting involved with TLG during her undergraduate degree, Pav realised that her true calling was in education. “When I went on the Rural Program I saw the huge disparity in education between children attending metropolitan schools and students attending rural and remote schools,” she said. “I was astonished by the statistics and it surprised me that there was so much inattention towards children in our own backyards.” 

During her time with TLG, Pav completed a total of seven Rural Programs in addition to volunteering on the TLG Executive for two years. She recalled that some of her favourite memories on the Rural Program were those where she would begin working with students who initially hated maths but, after just a week of daily one-on-one tutoring, would “start to fall in love with it.” She also recalled seeing students who, prior to the program, demonstrated poor attendance say that “because of TLG they want to go to High School or university so that when they grow up, they can be a TLG tutor.” 

Pav’s experiences on the Rural Program convinced her that she wanted to teach in a rural school. When the time came for practical (prac) placements, Pav sent her facilitator a list of 15 of the schools TLG visits on the Rural Program, hoping to secure one of them. In 2018, she was placed on prac in Meekatharra, a town in the Midwest region of WA which, in 2016, had a population of 706. After taking a gap year in 2019, Pav returned to Meekatharra in 2020 as a full-time Year 3 and 4 teacher. 

Pav at her new job in Meekatharra.

We asked Pav how she would explain the education gap between rural and metropolitan areas to someone who had never heard of it. “Within my split Year 3 and 4 classroom I probably have students working at all levels from Kindy to Year 4,” she said. “This is due to so many factors including lack of attendance, learning difficulties/disabilities, and trauma to name a few. There’s also the issue of distance and lack of on site resources. Students lack readily available access to many external services such as speech therapists, audiologists and occupational therapists and this affects their in-class learning. It’s also difficult to get diagnoses for students with suspected learning or developmental difficulties so sometimes you feel like you’re working in the dark.” 

Yet, despite the challenges, Pav says that she “absolutely loves” her new job. “My favourite part of the job is definitely the kids I get to work with,” she said. “They’re all so witty and quirky and there’s always something to laugh about each day.”  When asked what she would say to education students who were unsure about applying for jobs in rural Australia she said, “It’s the absolute best thing I could have done...I learnt more on my rural prac than I did at any of my metro ones and it definitely made me a more confident teacher.” 

Pav surmised that, if it weren’t for TLG, she would never have ventured  down the path of rural education. She told us that she “made some of [her] closest friends” through TLG. And, as a result of the shift in her career path, she is “making a more immediate impact on children’s education.”  

Apply for the 2020 winter Rural Program now: www.teachlearngrow.org.au/apply 

If you are a former TLG volunteer (or if you know a former TLG volunteer) whose career was influenced by TLG and you’d like to be featured, let us know by contacting publicrelations@teachlearngrow.org.au.