The parents in India would give anything for their children to have an education and the children take their education very seriously as do the educators. There is huge pressure on the Hostel girls to study.
The Hostel girls are chosen from applications of children from the poorest villages. They have to do an entrance exam and the ones who do the best get offered a place. All the girls are sponsored by the church. So they all want to be there and have done well, so are quite intelligent. They come in at the start of year 6 but only stay if their marks are at a set standard.
We have a partial routine with the girls during exam time. Every morning at 6:00 am and evening at 6:30 pm the girls gather for prayer. This is self directed by the girls and involves singing, Bible reading, message from the reading, more singing, then prayer for each other, their families, the school and staff and any other needs that arise.
It is a beautiful time that just happens with no fuss. The Coordinator of this is a young Year 9 girl called Pravilika. She organises the roster and makes sure that these times are truly what they are intended to be. There is remarkable respect given to girls who have been chosen to lead certain aspects of the Hostel life. During prayer, Pravilika has no trouble giving direction to older girls and even calling them to order.
Yesterday the Principal was telling us that some of the Year 10’s are not doing as well as they should and so might have to leave at year end (School here runs June – April).
During April new applicants are brought in for special coaching (especially English) then they are examined for selection for the new school year.
We are wondering if we can have a part in this. We have been helping the hostel girls with their English studies and Geography study of Australia. Though they speak English very well they still have problems understanding grammar and singular/plural nouns (of which Gary and I are experts!!!).
I am finding that 45 years away from direct and indirect nouns is testing me. It seems that they are speaking a different language (if you will excuse the pun) when they show me this stuff in their books. However they came back from their exams thanking us for our help and very excited that they had done well. However, their English teacher told us they usually do come back saying they did well and in actual fact, they haven’t. Fingers crossed!!
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