Headmaster works to inspire hinterland pupils

Mar 23, 2015 News

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Being a part of a team of educators who share credit for significantly making an impact on the lives of hinterland pupils is one of the positives that he would prefer to take from his career as a head teacher of the Mashabo Primary School for the past eleven years.
“I didn’t work in isolation and needed their support to carry the school to a place we can say we are proud of,” Headmaster Quado Vancooten told Kaieteur News recently. “The attendance rate has improved tremendously because we have been working with the teachers and parents around the clock.”
Forty-year-old Mr. Vancooten is not an Essequibian by birth, but after working and living on the Essequibo Coast (Pomeroon/Supenaam) for over a decade, he has adapted well and considers himself to be a “Coastlander”.
Emerging from a family of intellectuals, Vancooten is originally from La Grange, on the West Coast of Demerara. His decision, however, to venture to Region Two and moreso  into the Hinterland Community of Mashabo all unfolded after he had chosen a career as a teacher and wanted to garner the experience of working in another remote part of Guyana’s Hinterland.
“I believe that working in the Hinterland gives a young teacher the chance to really mold the nation’s kids, who do not get to enjoy the same opportunities like the persons on the Coastland.”
However, after graduating and completing the Primary Programme from the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) in 1999, Vancooten decided to take his first independent step into life as a teacher. He chose the Mainstay Primary School, as opposed to a city school which would have been closer to home for him. The decision leaves him with no regrets today.
He quickly settled in at Mainstay Primary School and stayed there for almost five years, acting in the capacity as a Deputy Head. The approachable Headmaster mentioned that it was in 2004 that the then Principal at the Mainstay Primary School suggested that he apply for a promotion.
Vancooten indicated that after some soul searching, he eventually did but with some reluctance at first. He applied for the Headmaster position at the Mashabo Primary School, which hadn’t a Principal at the time. However, later in September of that same year, Vancooten said he received word about his successful promotion.
“I was twenty-nine at the time and had to learn quickly.”
Today, currently serving at the Mashabo Primary School which has a school population of one hundred and four pupils and six teachers, Vancooten says he is happy to be a part of the school and the community’s continued development.
The father of two children aged ten and eight, emphasized that a teacher’s proudest moment is when those pupils who they would have taught makes them proud. He added that every child has the ability to learn and no one is unreachable. “Gone are the days when a teacher would call you a dunce and put you in the ‘dunce corner’.”
Sharing several examples of his success, Vancooten recalled a former pupil, Madonna Abrams, who was the first student from that school to earn six CXC passes. Many other pupils have since followed in Abrams’ footsteps.
He also recalled another student, Avon Williams, whom he says is the only person from Mashabo who is working as a clerk with the Government at the Ministry of Education in Georgetown. Another student that he taught is Luciano Williams, who is today a trained Primary School teacher assigned to the Mainstay Primary School.
“These are the instances that make me look back and feel proud.”
Vancooten said transportation was once a challenge, but in 2004, after the community was given an outboard engine by the then Minister Harripersaud Nokta, the situation improved. He explained that the outboard engine was received in time, since the Community only had two other engines He said it was difficult back then because he was forced to seek “passage” with a paddle or walk a trail from the Lake Top which is some seven miles to the Mission, Mashabo and which is some two to three hours’ journey.
Life however became much easier after residents were able to purchase their own outboard engines. Things improved further after Food For the Poor donated the school’s first computer lab.
Currently, Vancooten said that the Guyana Jamaica Friendship Association has also signaled its interest and has since worked with the teachers and residents of Mashabo to initiate a breakfast programme. The Toronto Foundation has also come on board and they have been providing breakfast for pupils for four days a week since 2005.
Although Vancooten heads the Mashabo Primary School he is responsible for the smallest class. He teaches Grade 5, which has about six pupils. Vancooten said that last year, his School achieved its best Grade 6 Assessment results. He is confident that while a lot more needs to be done at the School level, he and his staff are willing to influence the pupils to complete their primary and secondary education, while working with them to also see continued improvements in their grades.
Vancooten, who is the eldest of two other siblings, has a brother who is a Physician at the Georgetown Public Hospital, while his sister is a nurse. He is proud to have come from a family of intellectuals and says whenever he has the opportunity he would engage in traveling, reading and meeting people.
He is advising “If you don’t succeed the first time, try and try again.”
 (Yannason Duncan)

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