The Intake 8 ended on the 20th February 2009 and at its closure students sat for a test of evaluation in which both their knowledge and skills increased by 50% and above.
During this time students come for practice to perfect their skills and acquire new knowledge. Unfortunately the majority, about 90%, are males. Females rarely come for practice as they are the ones in charge of home chores. They have less time to relax if it is not the time to go to school! And less adults come for practice too because they have to go out in search for livelihood.
Applications for Intake 9 were submitted and selection for new students done. This new Intake will begin on the 16th March and probably end by the 24th April 2009. This time as well, we have decided to retain more women than men, 29 females and 25 males for a total of 54 students in 3 classes of 18 students each. One class will just be for female and one class for male and the third will be of mixed gender.
The weekly short class is still going on and gaining much impact in the community as many people are coming for it. We have decided to add one more day to it so that it becomes a 5-day class instead of a 4-day class as it previously was. The completion rate is high, too, as we usually have an average number of 9 students per class.
Apart from classes and practices, LISa is a place where most FORGE projects do their works, too. My assistant and I do our best to help them in case of need. And at times, we go beyond work hours and at other times, we work on Sundays, when they have a lot to do. This action give both of us joy as we see people that we help be happy!
We are wondering if we could help the library by being another source of knowledge where people can come to the computer lab to read digital books, encyclopedia and so on. Three educative programs we have, so far, are ‘Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2006’, ‘Dictionaire Medical’ and ‘Collins Internet-Linked Dictionary’. Encarta could have been more helpful if it were in French! Teacher, Students and people from other sectors, like Skills Center do not usually use the lab as there is literally nothing for them! Well, we are not connected to the Internet, as we are told that it is expensive to maintain. We are asking if there is a way of enriching the lab with items that will benefit the community as a complement of the library.
