The main problem facing the school currently is that they are unable to pay their electricity and internet bills.
According to a professional who visited the school that’s about 85 km from Galle, the principal had showed an electricity bill (red noticed) for Rs. 30,000.00 (accumulated over a few months) which she is unable to pay since the education dept says it doesn’t have any allocations for such payments.
Located in a very poor rural setting, the school has 23 computers in the lab received from an ADB project but has no resources, no Old Students’ Association or rich parents to support the cost of daily use.
The teacher who is in charge of the PC Lab and teaching English lets the pupils watch English films and sets them the task of learning 10 new words after watching each film. He says it’s an extremely effective way of teaching and learning English.
Now the pupils who had never seen a computer before, have created and posted their own school’s web site at www.batuwangala.sch.lk.
The school is also opening up the lab to the village. Yet to get into a computer friendly culture, there is nevertheless an old farmer who comes in daily to read the newspaper on the web. The teacher gives classes to the local police officer late in the evening, after he completes the extra maths class for the O/L students. Such is the energy in this school with a young set of teachers who are determined to make a positive change in the village.
They need some help to achieve their dream and first is sustenance of the computer programmes that’s already making an impact on the pupils. The principal is very worried their electricity supply will be disconnected at any moment. NGOs and donors she has approached are willing to give equipment but not ‘on going’ costs since that’s outside their mandate.
The principal thus requires a benevolent hand and could be contacted on +94 716147451 .
