Thanks to Mrs. Roxy (Bacchus ’61) Beeramsingh for preserving this gem of yester-year and for sharing it with us.

From Beauty:  On the day the above picture was taken, Mr. JA Mootoo of Rose Hall, also took photographs of every other class.  Some of these pictures may still be around somewhere in someone’s attic.

From Richard Nunes de Souza ’61: Here is an interim reply about the picture you sent. With help from Syd Latchana, Ruth Lalsingh, Lynda Summers and Beauty Rawana the majority of the faces have been identified. Of the 32 faces we identified 27. Three of them we are unsure of namely, 2, 14, and 24. At present we cannot come up with names for 11 and 15 but I believe we will get all the names.

This picture was taken of the graduating Class of 1961 and is one stream of the A, B and C streams. That suggests that there may be photographs of the other streams. I’ll contact Jaiks and ask him if he has.

 Starting at the back row and moving from left to right:

1 = Jaikissoon Sukdheo aka “Jaiks”[former teacher at CHS, now retired high school teacher, lives in Montreal, Canada]

2 = ?? Garney [if this is Garney then he lived in London, England for many years]

3 = Asgar Azimullah aka “Gar” [lives in Toronto, Canada. His elder brother, Raymond Kudrath, and younger sister were at CHS]

4 = Amin Ohab [I think Amin died many years ago but I am not sure. He was from Fyrish. His family was in the petrol station business]

5 = Ragnauth aka “Baker”

6 = Roy Girdharry aka “Kissie” [former cricketer and captain at CHS. Lives in Toronto, he is an accountant previously trained as an agriculturist in Trinidad.]

7 = Permeshar aka “Katak” [a gentle giant of a guy, most of the time!]

8 = Jagdesh Jagnanan Sharma [his younger brother also attended CHS.]

9 = Chinapana Rajapa

10 = Mr Dhanraj [ex QC. Form Master 5C? Trained among first batch of pilots for the Guyana government. His plane was ‘lost’ and sadly, never seen again. His younger brother attended CHS.]

11 =??

12 = Lloyd Resaul Beharry [read sociology in England, worked for Guysuco, returned to England where he now lives.]

13 = Rengereddi Mutureddi aka “Rex” [from Williamsburg, married CHS grad, Patsy ?, lived in Canada, ran trucking business, sadly died many years ago.]

14 = ?? Lochan Persaud aka “Lochee” [if this is Lochan then he is in Ontario, Canada]

15 = ??

16 = Hazratally Insanally

17 = Bhupal Singh

18 = Jean Bickram

19 = Renee Pancham

20 = Shireen Sankar [former teacher at CHS, qualified as a nurse, married, raised family, living in London, England.]

21 = Bemaul Ramnarine

22 = Annie Latchana [in Toronto, Canada]

23 = Taramattie Munilal [sadly Tara died many years ago.]

24 = ? Raj Ramsaywack [if this is Raj then no 25 is her sister.]

25 = Betty Ramsaywack

26 = ‘Chano’ Surujbally

27 = Sylvie Mohabir

28 = “Baby” Khan [sister of Salim Khan, now deceased, former Latin Master at CHS]

29 = Rita Jagan [niece of late President Cheddi Jagan. Her sister Doreen also attended CHS.]

30 = Rookhmini Lakhan

31 = Ivorene Seepersaud aka “Ivo” [lived in Scarborough, Ontario near to the zoo]

32 = Ruth Lalsingh [qualified as a nurse, was married to CHS man, the late Simon Rawana, lives in London, England]

  I read with pride not the articles, but the signatories….Doctors and Professors, commonality being CHS, [the producer of minds] that have risen to intellectual discourse. However, the compilation of rambling data leads to inconclusive conclusions, dismissing that discourse.

The system did not recognize paucity of the environment as relevant to the development of minds. Even the native yanamos ( rain forest), developed a binary numeric system. It was not the abundance of resources that educate. It is the accumulated intelligence that is passed from teacher to student who becomes a teacher, the growth and evolution of human kind.

Sometimes, even the rational mind comes to irrational conclusions but still fodder for the mills.

Rohan Lachman

Class of ‘69

He also said that when asked why CHS was better the responses would be in the form of “platitudes, truisms, cliche…”. There are more illustrations of these same points which in summary mean that CHS grads in North America are proud of being at that school. Dr Samad’s view is that those grads should not be proud of CHS because CHS had few resources and what it had was no good anyway. That in a nutshell is Dr Samad’s case.

Dr Samad’s implication is that when the resources of CHS of the 1960s and 1970s are compared to a North American high school’s resources, CHS comes out badly. Every one knows that! What’s new? In support of his case he is disparaging about the labs, the books, the school rules, the teachers, unacceptable student – teacher ratio etc. For Christ’s sake, we know Guyana was poor, the Corentyne was poor, our parents were poor, our school was poor. We all know that, again and again. How does he explain the love we have for the school, for our time there, for our contemporaries or for our achievements in North America and in Europe? You just have to wait for it!

Dr Samad goes on to make a bold claim and by implication suggests that where CHS and its teachers failed, the North American High schools are very successful at this. His claim is that, “The whole point of education at any level is to create of students people who are able to think for themselves, who are able to think critically, to analyse situations with some kind of depth and objectivity, to be life – long learners.”

Don’t you just love it! I love it! Since I cannot do any research on the streets of any Canadian Province at present or even when I was there in February 2008, I’ll do the next best things, i.e. talk about what I and other have actually seen and know in Canada and also to adduce some statistics about education in Canada.

Those of you living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), do you remember visiting at least one large hospital in the GTA and do you recall how some Canadians get from hospital entrance to the ward or room of their destination? Do you remember the colour codes? You find out the colour on the floor of the ward you want and then you walk, head down, or you use the lift and pick up the colour trail, follow it until you get there! Does this sound to you that the users of this system are by and large people who think critically all the time, have been taught to analyse situations with some kind of depth and objectivity? Not a chance.

The GTA high schools did not fail all those users because I am sure that was not and is not the main outcomes for all those high schools. By this standard all the GTA high schools fail Dr Samad’s test. For shame!!

Ask yourself, if just the GTA high schools were succesful in achieving Dr Samad’s “whole point of education” why are so many advertisements on tv with actors wearing white coats to imply that they are qualified to tell viewers what to think? Why are movie actors and sports personalities appearaing in so many advertisements? Surely, all North American high schools achieved Dr Samad’s ‘whole point of education’?

It is obvious that Dr Samad’s claim and his implication is a load of rubbish! Just look at the evidence all around you. I urge you to go check on the web and have a look at the statistics and see for yourself what support, for example, Statistics Canada, provide to Dr Samad’s claim about the “whole point of education ” in North America. Below is a small sample from Statistics Canada:

(1) Ministry of Education comments on longer term dropout rate
TORONTO, Dec. 16 /CNW/ – The latest Statistics Canada report that tracks dropout rates among 20-24 year olds, up to six years after high school, reinforces how serious a problem the lack of basic high school attainment is, Education Minister Gerard Kennedy said today in response to the Statistics Canada report, Provincial Drop-out Rates – Trends and Consequences.

The report, released annually by Statistics Canada as part of its labour
market survey, is based on self reported high school graduation or
continuation of studies data and covers students in Ontario who were in high school before the reforms of the previous government that led to a jump in dropout rates.
The study suggests that approximately half of the 22 per cent of
Ontario’s high school students who dropped out within five years of starting high school, subsequently obtained their qualification or were in some form of school or training within six years. The high school dropout rate has since risen to 32 per cent in 2003-04 and then was brought down to 29 per cent in 2004-05. (Basically, 22% of high school students drop out from high school and 50% of that 22% go back and get some form of education. You are left to guess what happens to the other 50%! How many people do you know dropped out of CHS for non-financial reasons during your time there? How many CHS students during your time left CHS without even 1 subject GCE? RNDS. This is only to illustrate how ludicrous Dr Samad’s point was because you cannot fairly compare one school with all the schools in Canada much more in all of North America!)

(2) Home life linked to high school dropouts: Statistics Canada
Last Updated: Monday, April 5, 2004 | 7:45 PM ET
CBC News
A student’s possibility of dropping out of high school is strongly linked to his or her home life, according to a Statistics Canada survey released Monday.
The report indicated that the signs that a student might drop out show up as young as age 10 or 11.

Researchers found common causes for dropping out, including:

Low household incomes.
Lack of post-secondary education among parents.
Poor results in literacy.
The study is based on the Youth in Transition Survey done by Statistics Canada in 2002, and uses data from 15-year-old students who were questioned in 2000 and who dropped out by age 17.

The recent findings are supported by a 1994 study that noted that 10- and 11-year-old students with poor grades, a low-economic status and parents with low aspirations for the child dropped out by age 16 or 17.

“This evidence supports the notion that potential dropouts may be identified early,” the report says.

Only three per cent of the 345,000 students profiled had quit high school, but the authors said it would be premature to draw conclusions about Canada’s dropout rate, which was 12 per cent in 1999 and 18 per cent in 1991. (So, all these criteria applied to the vast majority of CHS students in the 1960s, and remember the CHS teachers were not trained or qualified! How many people you know dropped out of CHS for these reasons? RNDS)

(3) Population 15 years and over by highest degree, certificate or diploma, (2001 Census) [These stats are for all Provinces in Canada and only the part relating to high school graduation and no degree, certificate or diploma are shown as they are the relevant stats.RNDS]

Total  23,901,360
No degree, certificate or diploma: 7,935,075 (33% of total with no degree, certificate or diploma! Didn’t they hear about the whole point of education as stated in Dr Samad’s critique of CHS!RNDS)

High school graduation certificate: 5,499,885 (only 23% had high school certificate! That is less than a quarter of the population! Can anyone remember such large percentages of CHS grads leaving without at least 1 GCE? RNDS).  Source: Statistics Canada, Census of Population.
Last modified: 2004-09-01.

The whole point of giving these samples is to show that Dr Samad’s point does not even apply to Canada much more to the whole of North America. Please remember not to compare resources of one school, CHS, with that of all the high schools in North America. That is ludicrous.

What Dr Samad has done in his conclusion is to show that CHS, a small high school with very little resources in an extremely rural part of a poor British colony, had the following:

1. poor labs
2. outdated books
3. rules for students to follow at school
4. teachers with grade 12 or 13 (North American standard) education and were not trained.
5.teachers did not carry out any original experiment ( not specified by Dr Samad)
6. no library
7. no books
8. ‘unaceptable’ student – teacher ratio
9.results at the GCE sometimes as good as Berbice High School’ (a much better resourced school)
10. cricket field, a volley ball court

Now, if I ask you, would anyone be surprised at CHS being described as such? I suggest that if a typical Ontario high school was described in that way then lots of people in Ontario would be surprised but not about a school in Guyana!

So, what we have learnt from Dr Samad’s exercise is that a poorly resourced school in a very poor part of a very poor British colony had very small resources and those resources were of poor quality. Which would be your guess for a word to describe Dr Samad’s findings? Would cliche do? or would truism? Or would some other word do? What is certain is that Dr Samad’s argument has not taught you, me or even himself one iota more about CHS resources than we knew before we read his article.

What really gets me laughing is that Dr Samad, in order to put a modicum of reason in his argument states, “What made CHS special was that it had a large pool of student talent from which to draw.” I take that to mean that CHS had such a large group of clever students every year that the students were able to overcome the poor resources, poor teaching, no books, no library, poor labs etc etc! What a load of rubbish.

Did this guy attend the same CHS I went to or that you went to? What planet is he on!

One of the things that might go some way to explain the CHS success is the inspiration from our teachers. These include JC himself, Parkie (only silly boys learn from only their own experience), Julius, Salim (No one gets a hundred in my subject!) Khan, Mr Samnath (French is a language you feel and think about at the same time!), ‘Lucky (do you want me to go over this again?) Janak etc . They often quoted poems that inspired me and my friends such as this one:

“The heights of great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upwards in the night.” -

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This is the kind of subverting ’software’ they used on us. They made us feel that whatever we wanted to achieve was possible if we did what was necessary. The idea was that we could do it! No one ever told me that before I went to CHS and I am sure that few of you were told that or even thought of it.

This approach teaches personal commitment to your outcomes, acceptance of personal responsibility, inspiration that heights of achievement were possible even though at the time there was no external evidence to support that assertion. So we modelled achievement even though we did not know that at the time! We gloried in the elegance Caesar’s Latin, we fought Caesar’s wars, we imagined the vast wheat fields of Canada and Australia. We cut out maps on the ground in our back yards. We imagined Henry Tudor and his battles with the Pope. We imagined what actors in England would do with the lines and meanings of As You Like It!

They released our imagination and they made us feel comfortable that we were good enough to get any profession wanted. They made us feel that we were as good as anyone, anywhere. In short, they made our minds free! That, Dr Samad, large budgets do not buy, but teachers who understood their students, who respected and cared about them achieve that sort of thing.

My expert academic tutors at the LSE had this same approach. By ‘expert academic’ I mean these were the guys who wrote the text books that university students used for their courses. My teachers at CHS were never ‘expert academics’ but they inspired me and many like  me for I was not the only CHS grad to graduate from the LSE, arguably one of the foremost social science schools in the world. And, me, a boy from Rose Hall, Corentyne, was accpeted when the acceptance rate on average was 1 in 100! How do you explain my case and the thousands like mine, Dr Samad?

Is there anything more noble, more awe inspiring, more worthy than for one human being to plant in the mind of another the hope of a better life and belief in oneself? Dr Samad, sir, with all due respect you missed the whole point of CHS. It is not what we had but what we did with it. I am proud of CHS and proud that I attended that school! Even you, sir, I am proud of though you made me laugh perhaps when I shouldn’t!

I remember the old school, warts and all. I recall our teachers: some with   fondness, some with reservation, all with respect, and all with gratitude.

My memory has nothing to do with their level of “educational” achievement or their awareness of “pedagogy” [God, help me, for I am singularly perplexed. And my spirit is being tried here today. But I will try to be merciful.] Our teachers were imaginative, resourceful and intellectually superior to many educators I have met in North America, considering they did not have the benefit of lofty educational degrees. Our curriculum had stressed then different cognitive realities/expectations than have evolved over time, both in Guyana and overseas. And we are now the indubitable beneficiaries of that system, however flawed. Contrary to what is being presented, we are not permanently impaired by that experience, and not a few but very many of us have accomplished significantly. Our teachers “…with limited talent..” [ as he puts it] must be lauded for their creativity and versatility. And we must reach out to them in this moment of affront and anguish—now!

The vaunted experts in education almost invariably fail to see or grasp that the real and abiding meaning of education. [EDUCATE—THE ACT OF LEADING OUT] lies in folks gravitating [or being led out] from one state of lesser awareness or intellectual development to a state of higher awareness or accomplishment/development. To this extent, and by this measure, our teachers [irrespective the “paper” they held], succeeded resoundingly in helping us navigate that great divide, and to move on to realization of much more. They empowered us, including THIS gentleman, to pull ourselves out of the trammels of our times and lives, and our mediocrity. They fired our imaginations and fueled our minds with a thirst for intellectual development. After all, look at how far THIS gentleman has pushed himself from that genesis. And he is certainly not the only one, nor the best of the lot by any measure anyone could advance.

Quote: “…No one to my knowledge had conducted any original experiments, had any original thoughts, had created anything in the arts. Nothing was published. There was no library, no books apart from textbooks, and teachers taught entirely from those textbooks…”

So by his reasoning, all the products of the prevailing education system of Guyana at that time were “lost sheep”, achieving very little of worth. After all, CHS was not unique in Guyana. Most, if not all, had teachers who, according to him, were not educated according to nowadays standards: Not QC, St. Rose’s, St. Josephs, St. Stanislaus, BHS, etc etc. etc. So none of these “cram” schools produced anything much of worth, nothing of the caliber of THIS gentleman, apparently.

I was a student at CHS. I was a teacher at CHS. My teachers helped educate me—they LED OUT of me what was inherent IN me, and they saw me on safe footing on my road to growth and development. I say my thanks to them and offer an apology to all of them for the injustice of the statements made in Daizal Samad’s blog.

“We cannot tear out a single page of our life, but we can throw the whole book in the fire.” – George Sand [ Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, Baronne Dudevant ]

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.” – T.S. Eliot

Always.

Ronan Blaze
Class of ‘69

 As we observe the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of the Corentyne High School (CHS), it seems the appropriate time to present synopses of its seven-decade journey and of the person through whose efforts and accomplishments the CHS can proudly lay claim to the elite status and reputation accorded it by so many authorities on the subject of secondary education in Guyana, the Caribbean, and the world at large.

 Joseph Chamberlain Chandisingh (JCC) was born in November 1901 in Trinidad, one of five children – three sisters and two brothers. His mother, a member of one of the last batches of indentured laborers brought to Trinidad from India by the British in the late 1800s, had got married to the senior Chandisingh, a Trinidadian engaged in work as a minister (also known as a catechist) with the Canadian Presbyterian Church.

When JCC was nine years old, the British ended their indentured laborer scheme and offered the people the choice of money to buy land, on which to live permanently in Trinidad, or one-way tickets to return to India. Agonizing though the decision was, JCC’s mother chose the latter alternative and sailed back to India, taking her eldest daughter with her. Sad to say, they were never heard from again.

Guyana’s comparatively attractive economic opportunities in the British Caribbean at the time prompted JCC’s father to leave Trinidad in search of a better life. He and his two sons, JCC and Charles Washington Chandisingh (CWC), ended up in the Village of Letter Kenny, Corentyne, Berbice, where he continued performing his Presbyterian catechist duties. The Letter Kenny folks, with true Guyanese-style hospitality, welcomed their ‘Trini’ brothers and helped them to settle down and, eventually, to call the village home.

Some years later, while JCC and CWC were still very young, their father passed away (he was buried at the Auchlyne cemetery), and the boys were, in effect, rendered orphans, with no close relatives to support them. But they had their minds focused unwaveringly on academic improvement and simply refused to allow themselves to fall by the wayside. They lived day to day and were helped along the way by friends, including the Goorbarrys and Persrams, who owned businesses in then economically advantaged Letter Kenny. (JCC worked for a while in the J.B. Goorbarry Grocery ‘salt goods’ store, situated next to their Esso service station).

Another source of income for the brothers Chandisingh at that difficult time was a magic show. CWC was adept at illusions while JCC, with a tremendous sleight-of-hand expertise, was known as Professor Natiora, the Prince of Coins, performing wonders with coins. They became quite popular as they thrilled audiences at various venues on the Corentyne Coast, including the Apollo Cinema in Rose Hall. Young and ambitious, they made diligent use of their income in their quest to improve their education.

JCC obtained his secondary education by correspondence as an external student of Queens University of Canada (incredibly, he never attended a classroom), and subsequently underwent teacher training in Guyana. He excelled in his training course. In fact, he did so well that when he sat for the third class examination, he passed second class – quite a feat in those days. He thereafter went on over time to found several schools, both in Berbice and Demerara, including the village of Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, where he was quite popular with the villagers.

While JCC was progressing in his educational quests, his brother got married to the daughter of a wealthy Trinidadian, who had come to Guyana to, among other things, seek a suitor for his daughter. CWC later left for Canada, with his new wife, to study medicine. Upon graduation, he returned to Guyana, where he settled and practiced his profession, initially in Rose Hall Village and later on the East Coast of Demerara. (Ranji Chandisingh, former government minister, is his son).

Through the auspices of the Canadian Mission, JCC landed a job as a senior master at the prestigious Berbice High School. He spent ten years there, teaching and consolidating his educational credentials. It was from his tenure there that his journey in secondary education made giant strides.

At that time in Guyana’s history, in the heyday of colonial rule, access to secondary education seemed, sadly, to be a privilege for only the wealthy and urban-domiciled. Living in Georgetown and New Amsterdam or belonging to a rich family in any part of the country insured that one, upon finishing primary school, had every likelihood of attending one of the pre-eminent high schools, including Queens College, Bishop’s High, and Berbice High. There was, lamentably, a widespread lack of emphasis on secondary education among the working class in the agriculture-oriented, rural areas of Guyana, including the Corentyne coast.

Recognizing this gaping void, the Canadian Presbyterian Church, in conjunction with the Canadian Mission, both of which exercised tremendous influence with the colonial rulers, embarked on the establishment of a secondary school in the central Corentyne area. After much deliberation, they decided to call the new enterprise the Corentyne High School and to house it in Rose Hall, immediately west of the ‘side-line dam’ and obliquely opposite the school’s present location. Thus, in 1938, was born an institution that was to play a pivotal role in paving the way towards availability of secondary education in a part of Guyana that sorely needed it.

The administration of the school was placed in the capable hands of the new principal, Mr. Firth, a Canadian, who remained solely in charge for about a decade. Eventually, in the late 1940s, Firth was joined by a newly appointed assistant – a person who had already carved a niche in secondary education in the country: JC Chandisingh, earning the recognition he deserved, became deputy principal of the Corentyne High School.

In 1949, the Canadian Presbyterian Church, content with their role thus far and determining that the school had advanced to a stage ripe for effective local management, relinquished control of the Corentyne High School, and Firth left for his homeland, Canada. They handed over administration of the school to a Board of Governors (trustees), who, recognizing JCC’s accomplishments, appointed him principal. JCC also performed the duties of secretary to the Board.

As principal of the Corentyne High School, JCC devoted all his energies to a campaign to canvass for students in the many villages in the central Corentyne (Berbice) area. He worked assiduously, traversing the (only) public road and the back streets on his Raleigh bicycle, every day after school hours, and going house to house as he stressed the importance of secondary education for the children post-primary school. His relentless efforts paid dividends as enrolment in the school rose sharply; and, as more and more people became aware of his message throughout the county of Berbice, he was able to scale back on his strenuous efforts.

Some time in 1959-1960, Booker’s Sugar Estates decided to demolish a two-storied building that had housed their hospital in Albion estate. However, a well-connected and influential member of the school’s Board of Governors, Mr. Satnarine, was able to convince Booker’s to, instead, donate the building to the Board. As a result, the structure was trucked to the site in Rose Hall and annexed to the smaller building then housing the school.

As stressed by Hardutt Chandisingh, the last surviving son of JCC, who began teaching at the school in 1957, the more spacious quarters proved quite a welcome relief, with increasing enrolment at the CHS. Eventually, a much larger and more appropriately designed building was constructed on the Portuguese Quarters (Port Mourant) side of the ‘side-line dam’ (better known as the ‘Auntie Betty Rum Shop Dam’ – who could forget that landmark joint!), just obliquely opposite the Rose Hall site, and this became the new home of the Corentyne High School. The old building was moved to the new site and designated the school’s auditorium.

The new Corentyne High School was opened, with much fanfare, by the Governor of then British Guiana, Sir Ralph Grey, in 1960. The school, up to this point in its history under the total private control of the Board of Governors, then became one of the first government-aided secondary schools in Guyana. Added to the Board of Governors, as part of the arrangement, was a government nominee, the first one being Mr. B.A.P. Branco, then headmaster of the nearby Port Mourant Roman Catholic primary school. JCC continued as principal and was ably supported by his deputy, Haroon Samad, with whose help he was able to maintain the solid reputation of discipline and high academic standard for which the school was renowned.

JCC’s contribution to secondary education in Guyana was recognized both at home and abroad, and the Queen, in 1961, bestowed upon him the illustrious honor of MBE (Member of the British Empire). The plaque read, aptly: “Forty Years of Devotion to the Cause of Education in British Guiana.” Subsequent awards by the Guyana government added to JCC’s impressive list of achievements.

 With the passage of time, with political developments in Guyana, and with transfer from government-aided to total government control, the school faced serious challenges, not the least of which was lack of funding for its upkeep. This took a tremendous toll on JCC’s health and forced him to take early retirement in 1978. He eventually passed away in 1982, leaving as his legacy his unassailable imprint on secondary education in Guyana.

 The Corentyne High School was eventually, and most befittingly, renamed The JC Chandisingh Secondary School. And, despite the problems that hastened the departure of JCC and continued thereafter, its reputation for  academic excellence, engendered mostly through his stewardship, lives on to this day, as we, the graduates, observe, with due pride, pomp, and ceremony, the occasion of its seventieth anniversary.

 Acknowledgement:

This article was written in collaboration with Hardutt Chandisingh (living in the UK). On behalf of all CHS graduates, heartfelt thanks are extended to him for the courtesy, enthusiasm, and cooperation he exhibited throughout the whole process, and for providing so many facts, hitherto unknown to most of us, about his father, JC Chandisingh, MBE.       

Abel Peters ‘66

Upon qualifying in the Common Entrance Examinations in 1966, I was selected to attend Corentyne High School. My sister Annie and brother Frank also qualified to enter Berbice High in 1968 and Corentyne High in 1970, respectively.  Another brother, Rohan, sat the PC examinations and entered Rudra Nath High in 1968.  Our success gave our parents a breakthrough in life now that we gained an opportunity to attend schools out on the “road”, thus redeeming us from traditional rice field and farm life in the Polder, and they certainly strove relentlessly to provide us the means by which such vision could be brought to fruition.   But at the very outset, attending “road school” posed many challenges and unforeseen hurdles which we all overcame only with self-determination and will-power.  I still remember the first time my father took his entire two weeks earnings of twenty dollars doing carpentry and gave me to pay for my school fees.  

When Annie entered Berbice High in 1968, she stayed with an uncle and his family in New Amsterdam but was so ill-treated that she was moved to stay with an aunt in Maida where she had to wake up very early to catch “Duke of York” bus bound for New Amsterdam.  This arrangement was short-lived and she was transferred to Manchester High where she bonded with many schoolmates and completed her high school education. 

When my brother Frank debuted at Corentyne High in 1970, he also stayed with an Agee at Tain Settlement but because of ill-treatment, had to be transferred to Manchester High where he struggled but achieved his high school diploma.  For myself, I was bailed out of Lesbeholden the second semester for lack of protection as neighborhood boys would trash me with hibiscus branches by the time I get to our house.  My grandmother and uncle at Maida kept me safely for the entire five years of my high school career and I was guaranteed a comfortable ride on “Zorina” bus for five dollars a month.   

Because it was costly to commute to school in those days, our parents restricted us with two visits to our home per month.  I recalled how we so eagerly anticipated going home to reunite with our siblings and how the longings would overwhelm my concentration on school work.  When Annie and I reunited at Rose Hall to go home on Fridays, what a reunion that was and we would be the happiest kids that day.  But the dreaded Sundays would arrive and we had to pack and part once again only to rekindle the sentiments over and over again. 

As Annie and Frank joined with the other high school students to catch the “Black Bush Princess” bus en route to Manchester and Rose Hall, they would hurry to get chores of feeding the ducks and chickens out of the way, race for the bathroom and swallow their green plantain or cassava roti and half cup of tea and would leave without any lunch.  Lunch was seldom prepared early enough in our household and Annie and Frank would remain hungry until they get home in the evening.  We had very little supervision because by this time our parents were living in the United States at the time. My siblings were always grateful to their classmates who shared their lunches with them on many occasions. 

When the bus set off from “Top Side” for its daily route through Yakusari, it would have already been filled to capacity with vendors and school children by the time it passed through Mibikuri and approached Lesbeholden.  Frank and Annie had no other option of getting to school but to somehow get on this bus by hook or by crook but mostly by crook.  Frank would cling on to the back ladder in hopes that the driver would not make a harsh turn by the Police Station and three bridges hurling weak clingers down the parapets.  Annie would grab on to the bus rail and squeeze in with the other girls for fear of being left behind and missing school that day which was not a pleasant thought for a desperate teenager dreaming of rising in the world.  On rainy days, they would have to factor in time to not slip and fall on the muddy street filled with tractor-laden ridges and to wash the mud off their feet before wearing socks and shoes.  I have witnessed Frank returning home one day so dismayed after missing the bus when he fell and got his only pants muddy. 

In the evenings, the “Black Bush Princess” would park in front of Tilowkie Parlour in Rose Hall waiting for its passengers.  Returning through Lesbeholden, the bus driver would sometimes race to overtake other vehicles on the one-way road only to skid off and send frantic schoolchildren bouncing around until the maneuvering settled and traction regained.  Frank and Annie told of many instances when the bus almost capsized.  Fortunately no one every got hurt and we all managed to obtain our General Certificate of Education with distinctions!

It is with deep sorrow and regret that we learn of the passing of a former CHS teacher, Mr.  Alan Armogum (Space-man).  Mr. Armogum was laid to rest in March in Toronto, Canada. 

The son of a Headmaster, Mr. Armogum attended Queen’s College in Georgetown and  started teaching at CHS in 1960 until 1968.  Not a native Berbician, he lived with the Ramsammy family at Albion Front during this period.  He was the very first Biology teacher at CHS and was responsible for setting up the Biology lab and for making the subject popular among students.  He was an enthusiastic adherent of the Bahai faith and many of his CHS colleagues remember him for his intelligence and ready laughter.

We mourn the passing of Mr. Armogum.