Learning English is no longer a dream for Dinithi PDF Print E-mail
Giribawa ADP
Thursday, 17 December 2009
10-year-old Dinithi Dimalka waits eagerly until Tuesday afternoon, because it is her favourite time of the week. She attends an English class which World Vision conducts in her village. She is among 1,200 children benefiting from English classes that were studied one year ago in Giribawa.

Dinithi lives with her mother, father and 14-year-old brother. She attends a village school and studies in grade five. The school has a very dedicated principal and teachers but without an English teacher. Therefore, students including Dinithi had no way to learn English. Although there are private classes conducted in the urban area around 10 to 15 km away from Dinithi’s village, her parents cannot afford paying high travelling cost and tuition fees. Besides, trained English teachers are not willing to teach in Dinithi’s school because it is situated in a remote area.

Responding to this urgent need, World Vision Lanka Giribawa ADP started providing English classes in six different locations within the ADP. Qualified teachers were selected for this programme and given training. The classes are conducted six days per week for children from grade one to grade eight.

Since Dinithi joined World Vision’s English classes, her parents see an improvement in her school reports.

“She is catching up the language really well,” said one of the teachers in the extra class, “Her reading and writing skills have improved immensely.”

From not recognizing alphabets she can now spell simple words like ‘apple’ within a year of attending the class. She also practices spelling new words such as ‘flowers’ and ‘trees’.

Her favourite subject used to be mathematics but now she like English the best. Her grades for English have gone up to 60 percent from a mere 30 percent and she is delighted. She is so far the best student in the class. She even teaches children who find it difficult to read and write simple words.

There is no better reward for her farmer parents than to see their youngest daughter doing well in a language that is foreign to them. They know very well that English is the universal language and having a good command of this language would bring long-term benefits to Dinithi.

There are lots of other children performing as good as Dinithi. They are all grateful that World Vision makes English a familiar language to them through providing English classes in their communities.