PIES 29 June - 3 July:Learning Haven

This is a school without desks or chairs, but the students are only too happy to have access to some form of education.
Walk down one of the rubbish-strewn lanes in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, and you will come across the narrow entrance to a nondescript flat. Just minutes away some of the glitziest malls in the city, but here, the atmosphere couldn’t be more different.
Small, messy stalls line the lane, and the people walking around, going about their daily business, look distinctly non-local.
Inside the building, the stairwell is dim, grubby, and rather dank. Climb up three flights of stairs and you will arrive at a cramped unit. Clothes-lines hang right outside the flat’s narrow corridor, aflutter with the day’s washing. With its shabby walls and linoleum-lined floors, this unit looks no different from any of the others in the building.
Except for the large group of laughing , chattering children sitting inside. Their eyes are on an adult who is pointing to a whiteboard and speaking loudly. Surrounding them are piles of books and stationery.
Hand-drawn posters and educational charts liven up the plain walls, and two computers sit in a corner. These children are Myanmar refugees of Chin ethnicity.
These children do not wear uniforms, there are no desks or chairs, and classrooms are simply different units on the same floor. Yet, for the 150 students who study here daily, this little flat is the closest thing to a school they have in Malaysia.

WORD LIST
1. rubbish-strewn
2. narrow
3. nondescript
4. atmosphere
5. messy
6. distinctly
7. stairwell
8. cramped
9. corridor
10. aflutter
11. shabby
12. hand-drawn
13. refugees
14. ethnicity
15. daily

ENRICHMENT LIST
1. haven
2. glitziest
3. grubby
4. dank
5. chattering