Sarnelli House is spending a lot of time (and money!) on the education of our children. By and large, the grades are creeping upwards as the children get more support from house mothers and volunteers and more encouragement from Brother Keng and other staff. There are a lot of very smart children living at Sarnelli House, with some regularly finishing top of their class and others not far behind. In Viengkhuk house, for example, 16 of the 21 girls beat their class average and eight scored a B+ grade or higher. However, many of our children may have started school late or struggled with school as a result of ill health or a lack of confidence. A handful may not even have had much schooling before coming to Sarnelli House. Once they fall behind in their classrooms, there is not much in the way of remedial support or alternative teaching techniques.
Last year, Brother Keng organised a Thai literacy camp for some of the younger children and it was a great success. This year, extra tuition was made available for mathematics. Three young teachers, one a student of Statistics, came to Sarnelli House every day for a week to help ten of our boys with basic maths, as well as help with reading a clock. We were a bit wary that the boys might not want to attend but they really enjoyed solving their puzzles and playing games. Huge credit must go to the teachers for finding innovative ways to teach the boys and make them learn without realising it! Hopefully, this extra attention will bolster the boys’ confidence in this new school term. Sarnelli House plans to roll out a bigger tuition camp during the long school holidays in April and May next year.
