| The Upper ECD Women’s Advisory Committee (WAC) of the Guyana Teacher’s Union celebrated its 70th Anniversary yesterday, and used the occasion to honour three fathers who have made incredible contributions to the teaching profession.The Committee, whose 70th anniversary is officially on the 25th of June, 2010, commemorated their long years of working hand in hand with the Guyana Teachers Union with a special church service at the St. Andrews Church in Cove and John.The Committee includes teachers from all 23 schools of the district which spans the East Coast from Enmore to Ann’s Grove.The service included a tribute to three special fathers who were also teachers that have contributed several years of service to the schools in the district. These fathers were 66 year old Jamanlall Misir, 75 year old Henrick Moniz and 74 year old Clifton Peters. All retired teachers, these men dedicated between themselves several decades of their lives to educating young people.From left, Jamanlall Misir, Rev. Clifton Peters and Henrick MonizJamanlall Misir, the 66 year old retiree, began teaching when he was just 21 years old. He gave some 45 years to the teaching profession before finally retiring for good. His forte was teaching Common Entrance classes. In 1962, one of his students was top boy in the country at the exams and in 1975, after he was transferred to the Enmore Primary School, he gave them their first pass to Queen’s College, a feat that school had not achieved for some 15 years before his arrival. In total, he says that he spent some 29 years at Enmore Primary and even went back to teaching for several years after his official retirement but now he simply spends his time at home. Mr. Misir is father to five children and 12 grandchildren.Seventy-five-year old Henrick Moniz, however is still in the profession, currently serving as the principal of the Lusignan IBE School. He says that he has been in the field for some 58 years as a science teacher. Starting in 1953, he officially retired in 1990 but that has not stopped him. His experience in the subject area of science was part of the reason that he served some nine years in the Science Department of the Ministry of Education where he worked on drafting science curricula for primary and community high schools.Mr. Moniz is father to nine children, four of whom are teachers. He also has eleven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.Clifton Peters, who will be 75 later this year, is an even more interesting study. Reverend Peters was the officiating clergyman at the service yesterday morning. According to his daughter,NFL Jerseys China Cheap, Rev. Peters took up theology after retiring from his post as Headmaster at Strathspey Primary School. In his teaching career, Rev. Peters served as Headmaster at a number of Primary Schools such as the St. Andrews Primary School which sits right next door to the very church that he presides over. He was also Headmaster at Canegrove Primary as well as West Ruimveldt Primary. His daughter noted that he even spent 11 years in the interior as a Headmaster at Malali. Rev. Peters is father to three daughters and has one granddaughter.The three men were presented with tributary plaques in recognition of their years of service as teachers and as fathers too. In his sermon, the Reverend said, “If I could live my life again I would do so as a teacher.” He also warned his congregation of their responsibilities when he said that, “we must teach our children well and we must make our teachers teach our children well too.”Present for the Upper East Coast WAC of the GTU was Mrs. Jackilin Butcher, Chairperson and WAC representative for the District. She said that ever since their formation by a core of women in a teacher’s house in 1940, the group has come a long way. But that doesn’t shorten the long path laid out ahead of them. She noted that there will be trips, community service projects, competitions, entertainment events and a number of fundraisers in the months ahead. For the anniversary celebrations, however, there was the church service held yesterday, while there is a Health Symposium (to discuss such matters as diabetes, cancer and menopause) on the June 29.Looking to the future of the group, she noted that they were looking to change the gender ratio by involving more men in the group and they wanted to see greater community involvement and an increase in the scope of their outreach projects.Present for the Guyana Teachers Union was their Administrative and Field Secretary, Mr. L. Baptiste. |
