Dear Editor,
In making my point I wish to combine two recent letters to the editor and a daily column. In chronological order of publication I refer firstly to Dr Prem Misir’s letter to KN, July 23, captioned ‘Political resistance to the birth of UG.’ In this letter Dr Misir says as follows: “Drayton also noticed in early 1963 that some senior education officers in cahoots with the Permanent Secretary within the ministry of education wrote disapprovingly of the proposed national University…”
Between 1959 and 1963 my father Fred WE Case was both Director of Education and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Dr Misir is saying that FEW was one of the persons who wrote disapprovingly of the proposed national university.
In a letter to the SN dated December 17, captioned ‘There were no reported differences between FEW Case and Balram Singh Rai’ Dr Baytoram Ramharack wrote: “Cedric Vernon Nunes was appointed Minister of Education and Social Development in 1961… Mr Case was his Chief Education Officer and Evan Drayton was his Permanent Secretary. As the principal adviser on education to Mr Nunes, Mr Case would have helped in establishing the University of Guyana…”
In other words Dr Misir is suggesting that my late father may have been one of those philistines who was against the setting up of our own university, while Dr Ramharack says that Fred Case helped in establishing the same UG. Both gentlemen cannot be right, and Fred Case was as far from being duplicitous as the earth is from Mars. It would therefore appear that one of these good gentlemen may be guilty of trying to manipulate history, probably for some misguided or party political reason.
Over to Freddie and his column in KN of December 19, captioned, ‘When people write, history then becomes known.’ In this column Freddie states that “No doubt Mr [Rashleigh] Jackson was livid at the non-facts, propaganda, distortions in Dr Misir’s letter that he was moved to pen a composition that would correct the falsehoods… before they become part of our history.” It seems that the good doctor is at it again. I join my learned friend Rashleigh in setting the record straight.
Whenever the annals of the history of education in Guyana are written, accuracy will be important. For years not only was the name Case synonymous with education in Guyana, but it must also be recorded that Fred Case played a pivotal role in the establishment of UG. I was told that the Golden Arrow of Achievement he was awarded on February 23, 1980 had to do not only with this fact but also sought to recognize and show appreciation for the valuable work he did in education over a period of 31 years. It is a standing disgrace that to this day no school or institution of learning carries his name. But as the old people say, Everything in its time.
Yours faithfully,
F. Hamley Case
