Renowned Educator and Administrator… Oswald Kendall is a ‘Special Person’

May 19, 2013 News

---

 
 “I am proud of my development of structures at Christ Church Secondary. I am proud of the formation of the President’s College. I am proud of the indigenisation of materials at the Curriculum Development Centre. I am happy, too, with my formative role in the development of the History syllabus for the Caribbean Exams Council.”

By Michael Jordan

He took part in a bold and innovative programme to groom talented youths to become future leaders. He started a co-operative drive that helped to expand one of the nation’s secondary schools. He spearheaded the printing of local textbooks with Guyanese stories and themes.
To hear 74-year-old Oswald Neville Kendall speak with that ring of enthusiasm and nostalgia of his days as a teacher, principal and Education official, is to listen to a man who viewed his career as an exciting adventure rather than a chore. It’s also no surprise that this gentleman who rose from pupil teacher to Chief Education Officer is still finding ways to give back to society.
He was born in Kingston, Georgetown, in what he described as ‘humble beginnings.’ He first attended St. Ambrose Primary, then Tutorial Secondary, the latter being established by brothers Austin and Joseph Castello, for the less privileged.
He left school at 18, with practically no thought of entering the teaching profession.

“Everybody in my time wanted to get into public service. But before you got there you had to wait a bit, so I decided to teach. When I was eventually called to the public service, at the same time I was called to go to Training College, so an aunt advised me to go to Training College and become a Class One Grade One teacher, and then I could go into the public service after.”
So he began as a pupil teacher at the St. John the Baptist Primary School in Bartica. He immediately fell in love with that community.
”It was my first stay away from Georgetown. I just loved the place and its environment. The people there were kind to me and all of that made me want to stay in teaching. I had some good mentors like J.J Adams and Edgar B. Jordan…the people really looked after me.
My first salary was sixty-five dollars a month. It sounds small, but sixty-five dollars could have paid for my boarding and bought me clothes. It could carry you to two days before pay-day.”
After two years of teaching at Bartica, Oswald attended the Teachers’ Training College, and upon graduating at the age of 21, began to earn the ‘princely’ sum of $125 a month.
“A lot of big people did not earn that amount of money,” he reminisced.
He recalled that back then teaching was a male-dominated profession, and a respected vocation at that.
“Most of your headmasters and seniors were male.  You could have counted the females; all your heads and deputies were men.
A teacher in a community was well respected. I always remark how much respect there was for the head of the school and the teachers. A teacher could call a boy and give him two lashes and the first person to want to clean the board would be that same boy who got the two lashes.
“When you left home in the morning there would be a group of students who wanted to carry your books. That was the amount of respect people had for teachers. I remember when I was at Christ Church (as Principal), students would be vying to carry my briefcase. Of course, a number of teachers would get their bicycles punctured (by male students), especially if they (the boys) had gotten a couple of lashes, but that same boy would run to take that bicycle to get it patched.”
After leaving Bartica, he was appointed Senior Master at East La Penitence Secondary. But it is his seven-year stint at Christ Church Secondary, where he was appointed principal, that he is particularly proud of.
When he arrived at Christ Church Secondary in 1969, the building consisted primarily of a western wing and an open auditorium.
Following in the footsteps of Mr. Mc Donald, the former principal, Mr. Kendall helped organize co-operative efforts to raise money to build an eastern wing.

“By self-help we put in 19 classrooms, science labs and a Home Economics department. We held bingos, walk-a-thons, school fairs, dances, ‘market day’, in which each class would bring something to sell. We also had concerts (we had singer Compton Hodge who was a Christ Church boy). We also put on art shows where the children’s art would be on show.
“From (timber company) Mazaharally and Sons we got wood; from C.R. Jacobs, zinc sheets, and USAID gave us windows.
The boys (at the school) did block-making, and His Grace, Archbishop Alan John Knight, took an interest and he wrote all over the world and we had cheques coming in. The Christ Church Diocese also gave money and a woman gave us $4,000 to get the work started.
“It really became a serious school…I still have a soft spot for Christ Church; there were excellent staff and good students.”
In 1976, Mr. Kendall was promoted to Curriculum Development Officer, which led him to an even more exiting phase of his career in Education.
That was a period in the nation’s history in which Guyanese were being encouraged to be self-sufficient and embrace things local. The Ministry of Education embarked on a project that entailed the printing of text books with stories and art created by Guyanese. Teachers were also involved in producing text books in disciplines such as Mathematics and the Sciences. Those were the days of the ‘Timehri Readers’ series for pupils, with artwork by locals such as Emerson Samuels, Barrington Braithwaite, Tyrone Doris and Harold Bascom. Some of these artists still remember the assistance and encouragement they received from Mr. Kendall.
”The Ministry felt that I had done some good work at Christ Church, so I could get in a serious area in the Ministry which was developing material in reading, science, and agriculture.
“It was indigenous material (that was used) to break that stranglehold of foreign material. It was very positive, because teachers felt that their work was appreciated and acknowledged. You were using the indigenous…you felt you owned the thing, and you were part of it. We had our children writing poems and putting them into book form. There were people writing Amerindian stories and we were going down the road of using indigenous material.”
With these successes, it was perhaps no surprise that when President’s College opened its doors, Mr. Kendall, also a former Deputy Chief Education Officer, was chosen to be the first principal of the elite school. One of the principal goals was the grooming of youths for future leadership roles.
“That was a glorious time. We were training persons who were brilliant, but who we wanted to be leaders. And the students took it seriously.”
The former principal fondly recalled that the school utilised its 150 acres to raise livestock and plant practically every crop.
“We were self-sufficient in poultry, pork, beef, milk; we planted our own ‘greens’; we planted rice; the backlands were full of mangoes, star-apples and coconuts; we had seven fish-ponds, so that the students had their own choices. It was a powerful experiment.
“We were competing with QC. We were residential, and then we were providing the facilities for learning. We looked at curricula changes; we had drama, music, art, horse-riding, physical education, chess (we had people from the Chess Federation coming in); karate…
“The school was to be a catalyst for change. Everything that you wanted to do could have been done there. President’s College was twinned with the David Rose Handicapped Centre, so that the students had a feeling for the handicapped. They said that they had so much to learn from those who were doing sign language, then they would do exercises such as hold walk-a-thons and give to charity. At Youth Week marches, President’s College would win with its precision.
“The students who have graduated from President’s College have formed a bond that is remarkable and they have been doing well. They were a different group and they were serious.
“We are no longer training for leadership,” Mr. Kendall lamented.
After three years at President’s College, the highly qualified educator (he’s received training in the UK, Canada and France) then took up post of Chief Education Officer.
He assisted, in no small way, in the formation of syllabuses for History for the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and was also an Assistant Chief Examiner for History.
His impressive contributions have earned him awards from the Cyril Potter College of Education, the University of Guyana and for his services to the Caribbean Examinations Council.
Mr. Kendall now lives in ‘semi-retirement’ at his South Ruimveldt residence with his wife, Mrs. Joan Kendall, who is a former Headmistress of St. Joseph High School. ‘Semi-retirement’, because he’s still quite active in the field of Education, as well as being a member of the Lions Club, a Mason, and a staunch Anglican.
“At present I am chairing a committee that wants to renew Anglican involvement in education. We are setting up the Duke Edwards Anglican School, which would be nursery and primary in the beginning. We believe that there is need for spiritual growth in our students. We hope that, come September, a number of persons would send their students there.
I am also a member of the Tutorial School Board; I believe some of us have gained so much from Tutorial High.”
But what are the achievements that gave him the most satisfaction?
“I am proud of my development of structures at Christ Church Secondary. I am proud of the formation of the President’s College. I am proud of the indigenisation of materials at the Curriculum Development Centre. I am happy, too, with my formative role in the development of the History syllabus for the Caribbean Exams Council. When we look at the primary educational project, I am proud of some of my students, (for example, the present Deputy Chief Education Officer would have been one of my students), some doctors; and I am also happy with some of the relationships I have formed with a number of teachers.
I have enjoyed my career. I think that I was fortunate to have had good mentors; persons who were interested in my own growth.”
 

---

---