A Precious Progression
The end of October saw the beginning of my time in Precious Vision rehabilitation centre (now school). It was a mixture of positive excitement due to the amount of work needed and utter bafflement of the children’s lack of basic academic skill.
Since then the school has stabilised significantly and there have been vast positive changes at Precious Vision. Admittedly there have been some stumbling blocks, but I’m glad to say we persevered, and the school now has organised classes divided by ability rather than age and the level of the student’s academia has greatly improved.
Volunteer Mary teaching Standard 2 and 3
During the current school holidays and subsequent rain season the number of children attending daily have decreased to about 50% of normal (which is quite high – nobody I know would go to school during holidays….). Most of the other local teachers have not been in for the last couple of weeks and this have given me the chance to interact with some of the children I haven’t taught for several months. To my astonishment the children we had to reassign to lower standards, as we re-organized the classes, have thrived by having a consistent learning-environment, contrary to the previous “normality” with recurring closings, absence of teachers and bookless classes.
Mercy and Zippora enjoying their lunch
One great example of the positive changes was when a boy finished a verb-assignment, which he previously was completely unable to do, in less than 10 minutes.
Undoubtedly there are still many hurdles to overcome but with the continuing support of GVI and a steady increase in volunteers, things are looking bright for the future of Precious Vision.
From left to right: Volunteers: Gemma, Kirsty, Ivo (Headmaster), Mary and Madame Jane (centre)
Ivo 2010
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