Saturday, 22 September 2012

The Computer Room / Lab

Uma and I turned up at the Neel Barahi School yesterday morning. It was a pre-arranged visit to attempt to video the school and the computer room for our potential  funders.

As a novice video maker,  I had to do  several retakes before I was remotely satisfied with the outcome. The poor headmistress was patient but  nervous in her halting and hesitant delivery. We fell about laughing because it was a case of blind leading the blind.In the end, we were surrounded by hundreds of pupils who all wanted their one minute of fame in the video.. So I obliged.
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The biggest surprise .in store  for us was the computer room.In the previous visits, the room was littered with some old non-working computers.It always look grey and in poor repair.  It is a large room, capable of taking at least 2 maybe 3 long rows of 10 computers each if the space is cleared and maximised. Imagine our surprise when we entered the computer room , it was s sight for sore eyes..Prakash, the computer teacher cum administrator had spent the previous 2  days (bank holiday) installing and connecting the new computers to the  Internet. There are now over 10 computers sitting in a long row, ready for action.

Uma and I turned and smiled at each other, we both thought' this is the day we have been working towards". All the running around and hard work have been worth it. It is obvious looking at the beautifully clear and clean room that it is  a computer room with a difference. Whoever comes in here to learn, s/he  will understand the hopes we have put into it.. The headmistress was overcome too, standing next to Uma and me. At that moment, I said to myself- this is what our charity is all about, providing opportunity  for a better  future.We acknowledged that we will need many more computers to enable a full class of  pupils to learn simultaneously, but this is an excellent start.

Once we have  recovered from our excitement, we interviewed a few students in the room to ascertain their views and future  aspirations .The girls especially were quite inspired.by this new toy.They all talked about seeking and acquiring new knowledge through the net. One of them wants to a doctor, and the computer will help her tremendously- according to her Another talked about broadening her horizon. I was  just over the moon

Later on, the headmistress said to me that she will remove the partition between this room and the staff room should we manage to acquire all 35 computers eventually.It will create an ideal learning environment for the pupils.

 Our target now is an additional 17 computers,desks and chairs. When the time comes, the computer room will truly become  a computer lab

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