An amazing transformation....

It’s been 7 months since the last FODAD visit to Sri Lanka.  With everyone now in country, we went along to the Village School to see for ourselves the work which had been done whilst we’ve been away, thanks to the many donations and grants.

As we approached, it was eerily quiet. Normally, there are children scattered around the classrooms and the playground but this time, they were all in class, being exceptionally well behaved and you got a real sense that there was a lot of learning going on.

We went first to the back of the school which houses the primary children and which has been subject to the most building updates over the last 6 months.  Regular readers will know just how dilapidated this part of the school was but the transformation has been amazing. We’re still talking about a very basic school, but the classrooms had new ceilings, cupboards and desks and chairs, as well as a completely new roof and gutters. Three nights ago, there was probably the worst electrical storm that many could ever remember; the school remained dry and water-tight, even through this, which is something we're really proud of!

Then we visited the new computer room.  Again, this is so far removed from what we might think of as a computer science lab, but there were three laptops, one connected to the internet with students doing research online.  It was a great space to see, and very conducive for study.  We pay for a teacher to teach 3 days a week but unfortunately some of his time is spent teaching maths as there is currently no teacher for that subject.  There is some work we need to do to try and speed up the laptops which were donated to us as they're struggling in the heat despite the desk fan mounted to the ceiling!

Walking back out through the rest of the school it struck as just how much had changed over the last 6 months.  We still have reservations about the quality of English being taught and will have to investigate that further but it was a really positive visit and we left feeling real progress had been made.