Dear Editor,
In a few days from now, on 12th October, as part of its annual graduation, Saraswati Vidya Niketan will be hosting an event to honour Mr Julius Nathoo, who was the principal of Saraswat High School, De Kinderen, West Coast Demerara, from 1961 to 1970. Mr Nathoo who now resides in Canada will be travelling to Guyana for this purpose.
Saraswati Vidya Niketan has taken the decision to recognise our outstanding educators as part of its annual graduation to underscore their invaluable contributions to the development of education in Guyana, in both the private and public spheres.
With the withdrawal of the infamous Swettenham Circular in 1931 which had removed the penalty on parents who did not send their children to school, there was a dramatic increase in the registration and attendance of Indian students in the nation’s primary schools. The hunger for education was such that within a generation Indians began to occupy some of the highest offices in the land and to be more than proportionately represented in the professions, especially law and medicine.
We know that Christian churches almost monopolised the delivery of education and the fear of conversion was an ever present concern to the ‘new’ entrants to the system. Partly for this reason a large number of ‘non-Christian’ schools were opened up across the coastland, the most successful of which were started in the Corentyne.
Some of the more illustrious personalities included R N Persaud whose students included Dr Cheddi Jagan and Justice Dhan Jappan and Rudranath who started schools in Rose Hall and later in Port Mourant. Around the same time, Swami Purnananda of the Bharat Sewashram Sangh started the Hindu College in Cove and John. Not far away at Golden Grove, Iqbal Ali was also the founder of a school.
In Georgetown J I Ramphal started as early as in the 1930s the Modern Education Institute which had among its students Richard Ishmael, who himself was to go on a found the Indian Education Trust, Dr Leslie Mootoo, and President Arthur Chung.
On the West Coast of Demerara, we had such efforts as the Stewartville Underprivileged School for Boys started by Ganga Ram Dwarka. In the same vicinity a school was started and run by Bannerjee who also ran a printing press for many years. Earlier, a number of persons, including Pandit Pitambar Doobay and Richard Benjamin, came together and started the Saraswat Primary School at De Kinderen. Soon after, the Saraswat High School began with Mr Julius Nathoo as its first principal.
Mr Nathoo, therefore, belongs to a long line of eminent and esteemed educators who made invaluable contributions to education in Guyana. The attempt at SVN to recognise him seeks to rescue from oblivion all those who were leaders and pioneers in the field.
We often hear of the quality of education prior to the 1970s in Guyana. Many of us know the power and influence that our teachers had on us, even though at time the discipline was severe, even harsh, some would say. I gratefully remember Ms Bernice Palmer who taught me the love of poetry and literally beat Longfellow’s ‘A Psalm of Life’ into our heads, a poem I remember to this day. In terms of quality and influence, whenever and wherever we meet, the students of George Archer, a leading light at Cornelia Ida, speak of him with reverence and love.
A younger colleague of his at Cornelia Ida, Jeewan Dayal Raghubir battled against great odds to produce the first batch of College of Preceptors scholars. He was a great cricketer and has a powerful right arm, which he used with great delicacy and efficiency, in the classroom and on the field. His impact on my generation of students was profound. Together, they all grounded me in values which sustain me even today.
At the beginning of this new school term, Shoundell Archer applied for admission. As it turned out she is the granddaughter of George Archer. Since then, I have often wondered, would I be able to mould her education in the same way her grandfather did for me and countless others? Another interesting application came from Tanuja Deopaul who has recently returned from the United States. Tanuja is the great granddaughter of Edwin Burnett who had one of the best schools in Queenstown, Essequibo and who also founded a branch at Vergenoegen where among others Abdul Rauf was a student. As it turned out Mr Rauf was one of my teachers at Cornelia Ida.
Yours faithfully,
Swami Aksharananda
