India, Part 5

As we leave the classrooms, we stop by the library.  Yep, this is it.  They told us there were a number of books checked out.  Nevertheless, three shelves for books for eight hundred students ... well, something needs to be done about this!  There were eight people in our visiting team, and most of us had put books from our own personal libraries into our suitcases to give the school. We joked that we doubled the library holdings!  The pile of mattresses next to the library shelves is there for storage; apparently there wasn't storage built in at the student hostels.

Another "something must be done" location in the school, in the humble opinion of this educational administrator, is the science lab.  This is it, for serving students up through 10th grade.  Note the skeleton hanging from the corner of the shelf to the right middle side of the picture.  Other than that, there were a few pieces of equipment for simple experiments, a few bottles of chemicals, and some microscopes donated by the Indian government that had not yet been unpacked.  There's no water supply to the room, no bunsen burners, no eye washes, no goggles for use during experiments, no dissection equipment, and so on.

Again, considering that this school is three years in from opening, and considering that people have so little in this part of the world, they've gotten a good start.  But there's so far to go!

Here we are in the computer lab.  A small group was studying their own tribal language as we walked in.  This lab has a grand total of six computers for 800 students.  And they weren't plugged in!  Perhaps that's just as well, since the power goes out several times a day, and I didn't see any surge protectors.

We knew they don't have internet connection in this remote place, but we asked if the students do word processing, or what they do with the computers.  If I understood the principal correctly, he said it was to demonstrate to the students what a computer is, and what a keyboard is.  It was not at all clear whether they turn on the computers or do anything with the programs on them.  Whew!

I first saw a teachers' room in a college in Hong Kong about eight years ago.  They have one at the Riverside school, as well.  It's a room with stations for the teachers to work at, where they do their grading and are available for students with questions.  This takes the place of teacher offices in American schools, I would think.

This is where I should say a bit about the teachers at Riverside school.  We noted that they were quite a young bunch, almost totally made up of people who were from the tribes of northeast India themselves.  They are bright, committed, and inquisitive.  They seemed to really enjoy the few chances they got to talk with us, discussing teaching methods, discipline, and so on.  The young man below has a masters degree in teaching through an affiliation between an Indian Christian college and a university in the United States.  Husband had a lovely time chatting with him and his wife, also pictured.

It is really touching and inspiring to see their dedication to the mission of Christian education, and to this school.  These are the brave pioneers of the present and the future in this part of the world!