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‘Principal with Principle’ Raj Mangal, MS remembered on death anniversary
By Leon Suseran
It was an afternoon dedicated to honouring a ‘household name’ in the field of education in Guyana and particularly in Berbice. He was the ‘To Sir With Love’— the name, the person, the educationist, the Guyanese Rajkishore Mangal, MS.
He was fondly remembered yesterday by his former students, relatives and friends at the school where he gave his life blood, Berbice Educational Institute (BEI).
Mr Raj Mangal, MS
It was in honour of the first death anniversary that such an event was planned and coordinated by some of Mr Mangal’s former students and close associates, friends and teachers whom he trained at the Cyril Potter College of Education, Corentyne, Berbice.
Guyana mourned the loss of this son of the soil last September; a man who gave so much to education and who pioneered teacher-training in Berbice.
He was Headmaster of BEI for many, many years and then started up the CPCE Rose Hall centre, paving the way for hundreds of secondary school teachers to access teacher-training right in Berbice. He was a respected disciplinarian and educationist who also helped to pioneer the wearing of the ‘shirt- jac’ in Guyana as he saw Guyana’s climatic conditions necessitated such a wear, as opposed to teachers wearing the suit which was a tradition.
His body was cremated on October 1 last year at the Reliance Crematorium in Canje. Yesterday, past BEI student Rev Errol Inshanally gave a stirring tribute to the man’s memory. He recalled the centenarian author, E.R. Braithwaite who wrote ‘To Sir With Love’ and its significance to the honour of the name, ‘Raj Mangal’.
“Today, we are paying tributes to the only man we know who fits that title ‘To Sir With Love,” he added. “Only Mr Mangal claimed our affection at such a level and this is why this term of endearment we owe to him, and of him, we say to him, to sir with love; if happiness was a teacher, Mr Mangal lived the happiest life, ever.”
The programme was chaired by past BEI student and veteran teacher as well as education officer, Bashir Khan. In the audience were Mrs Rajpattie Mangal, his widow and his son, Roy, as well as a grandson and a daughter-in-law.
A television set was then presented to the headmistress, Ms Willa
BEI HM Willa Batson receiving the TV set and portrait from NBS’s Mr Anil Beharry (ex- BEI student), Mr Bashir Khan and another rep from the BEI Old Students’ Association (all right)
Batson. It would be placed in the library, named after Mr Mangal— the Rajkishore Mangal Library. A portrait of the educationist was also unveiled and hung in the library, in honour of his memory.
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