After trawling trip advisor, searching for a weekend treat, I stumbled on Dylan’s Cafe. It mentioned American pancakes . . . and so we went. Sitting inside was a world away from the street food which marks each kerbside. The cafe name comes from Meghalaya’s obsession with Bob Dylan. He has never performed here. He has never even visited. In fact, he has only set foot on Indian soil once, for a wedding. That hasn’t stopped the Khasi people holding a Bob Dylan festival each and every year though. As I sat there, recalling Bob’s masterpieces, ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ swept into my head,
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
With Meghalaya being one of the wettest places on earth, mountains guarding each viewpoint and my blue-eyed bombshells, Matilda and Jude at home, it felt the most of appropriate songs.
The work we have done in schools this week has been extremely productive. I’ll try to outline it here. We have narrowed our focus on four schools. One situated in Shillong, two in rural Nongkrem village and one in even ‘ruraller’ Puriang. We set about assessing their current state. Most of the visits have kicked off with a cup of tea with the principal followed by a fact-finding meeting.
How many children are at your school? What is their level of English? How often have they used technology? Do you you have Wi-Fi? (Silly question), Do you have access to 4G? What is teacher retention like? How much do the children pay to come here? Do you have enough resources? Do you have enough teachers?
We have learnt not to assume anything here, so the simple questions tend to give surprising responses. We come away with the same feeling each time though, the principals are desperate to improve their schools. Of course, the UK is no different but it’s the level of desperation which is the deep contrast. ‘We want to make sure all children can have a textbook to work in.” Or, “Our numbers have fallen from 820 children pre-covid to 430 post-covid, we can’t pay our teachers.”
We then head to the classrooms, usually Class 6 as this is a comfortable middle ground for introducing technology. The children are attentive, hardworking and just as desperate to succeed as their principal. Most of the children haven’t held a tablet or mobile before and so we are now well-versed in showing them how to switch on the devices, connect to the internet and log themselves onto Learning by Questions (LBQ).
We have worked closely with Jop and Khraw, who will ultimately be carrying the work on once we return home. Much of the work has centred around the organisation of setting classes up and using the data that LBQ provides to inform the lesson and following lessons. We have decided to focus on maths as this reduces the barrier of language. The children genuinely love it and they are beginning to understand that this is no fad, it’s a new way of working - and it really does work. It’s amazing how a ‘Green’ response on the screen to show they are correct evokes the same level of pride as it does in any UK classroom.
Once we leave the school, the write-up begins. Tom and I discuss what we have observed both in the classroom and around the school. The schools are all at different points and for different reasons. The reports we write then get sent back to LBQ and the Bowland Charitable Trust.
The challenge in implementing this technology here is immense but the real test will be when we return home. Can we plan a way of sustaining this work? I think so. In the words of Bob:
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear,
Alone you stand with nobody near.
That’s certainly the aim.
