In the little primary school in Perani where we worked, money is of course a problem. Going there with students from an international school put things into stark contrast.
The base of the four walls of the classroom is painted black. The black area is about three and a half feet high. One of the services students from my school rendered was to paint vertical white lines on the black area of the wall to divide it into sections.
“We often fall short of notebooks,” we were informed. “So, the children have slates to work with at home. Here in school, the black wall becomes their slate.”
The students measured and painted the white lines. For their work, they were thanked profusely by teachers and students alike. The next day, it was somehow heartwarming to see that the children had already started working on their new-found blackboards.
One of my students commented, “In our school, we don’t even use common laptops. Each of us has a Mac, a Dell, and God knows what else. And these children don’t have notebooks. They use a wall to write on.”
I’m glad service is an integral part of the IB programme. That’s all I can say.
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