Molding minds at every level…Committed Educator, DONNA CHAPMAN, is a Special Person

Sep 27, 2015 News

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  “I believe that education is a passport to a better life…and I will encourage it until the day that I die.”

By Mondale Smith

The name Donna Chapman is well known and celebrated in the education sector. Ms Chapman has under her belt many leading roles of molding the minds of not just students but many teachers across the regions of Guyana.
“People see me as a straight jacket but I’m a stickler for quality and I believe that education is the passport to a better life…and I will seek to encourage it until the day I die,” she asserted during an interview.
At age 55, some say she may best be described as a true Guyanese educator committed to the calling of molding minds at every level of the Guyanese society.
After serving for only 11 years as a trained teacher at both the primary and secondary levels she began to serve the Ministry of Education in a different capacity as a subject specialist at the National Centre for Education Resources Development.
“I believe that education is a passport to a better life and to me no one can truly enjoy a better life of progress in this global village without an education so I’m always thinking that with an education one can progress and I will encourage it until the day that I die.”

So good and dedicated is she to the ideals of ‘education molding a nation’ that Chapman once lectured at the University of Guyana before ultimately landing in the post to serve as Deputy Chief Education Officer with responsibility for Administration. In her words “With an education the sky becomes the limit to a world of possibilities.”
Coming from the old school way of thinking, Chapman dedicated her life to teaching and education to the point that she never birthed any children as she believed that one should be married before becoming a biological mother.
“While I have some regrets about not birthing a child of my own I celebrate the fact that I have served as a mother to many who now hold senior positions in major offices in and out of Guyana,” a smiling Chapman boasted.
She lives by a code:  “challenges are mere bumps and one should never give up.”
The first of her many bumps along life’s path to being an outstanding educator, she recalled, was as a student at the Christ Church Secondary School. “You see, I entered, I believe, in the fourth week of the Easter term and at the end of term examination I was almost last in the class,” Ms Chapman recounted with a big smile.
This was because her family had moved from the Cove and John Police Station Compound to Agricola, Greater Georgetown thus she was transferred from Golden Grove Secondary. “However, I worked hard and made it in the top 10 of the class by the time the next exams come around,” she disclosed.
At age 39, during her years in the office as an Assistant Chief Education Officer all the officers in the Unit that she supervised were older and some even labeled her ‘Ms. Perfect,’ but that did not dissuade her managing both programme and people for improved performance.
Her advice to young people is, “remain focused, do not lose hope; even in failure there is a lesson to motivate and elevate yourself and others.”

None of her parents attended secondary school but they ensured that all of their children were motivated to complete their education all the way to the University level.
Amidst her busy schedule Ms Chapman ensures there is time for bonding with family and friends which could be dinner, girls’ night, picnics, sisters’ weekend or any fun activity. She is not only a consummate educator but attends regularly and, at present, is a member of vestry at the Church of the Transfiguration.
In fact at present Ms. Chapman wears the cap of co- convener of the fair committee for the church’s upcoming fair.
Born in Georgetown to a mother from Devonshire Castle, Essequibo Coast and a father from Lichfield Village, West Coast Berbice, her young years were spent in areas such as Punt Trench in Albouystown, Essequibo, Eve Leary, Cove and John, Agricola and finally at Festival City.
The career choice of teaching came naturally because there are scores of teachers/ educators in her maternal family. However, Chapman was the only one from among her siblings who took on the job of teaching in her mother’s footsteps. “Mom retired as a Senior Mistress at Tucville Primary…”
Chapman attended several schools, Kingston Methodist Primary, St. Andrew’s Primary (Cove and John), Golden Grove Secondary and Christ Church Secondary because her father was a Police Officer.

With a bubbly laughter she recalls her fondest memory as a school girl in Prep B at St. Lawrence Primary, Hampton Court, “I was selected to give a bouquet to Ms. Shirley Field Ridley the then Minister of Education.” Because of the states womanly appearance and eloquence, of the distinguished Minister, Chapman said that she was even more fueled to become an educator.
While at Christ Church, Chapman was involved in several co-curricular activities such as, Girl Guides, National Cadet Corps (Guyana National Service) and also sang in the National Schools Choir under the baton of the late Edith Pieters.
After writing GCE O’Levels, she began a short teaching stint at the West Ruimveldt Primary.  She soon after was entered the Cyril Potter College of Education in preparation for a teaching career in the primary school system.
“Whichever school you attend you have to try and stick-it out; make the best of it and work hard,” Chapman urged.
On graduating, Teachers College, she was assigned to the East La Penitence Primary School, where she taught for 10 years. She further taught at two others schools, East Ruimveldt and North Ruimveldt Secondaries but continued acquiring new knowledge and skills by attending the University of Guyana.
On the first occasion she studied for a Science Teachers’ Extension Certificate then a few years later read for the Degree in Education.
One year after graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree, Chapman was awarded a scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. There she read for a Master in Education, majoring in Curriculum Studies at The Victoria University of Manchester. On her return she joined the staff of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development where she worked as Subject Specialist and then Senior Subject Specialist.
During this time Chapman co-authored texts in the “Easy Path Series” (Fun with Language Books 3 — 6) and Commonwealth Secretariat/CARICOM Secretariat Project — Modules for Multi-grade Teaching.
She was also involved in developing Curriculum Guides at both nursery and primary, facilitating workshops across Guyana in curriculum issues such as Language —Content and Methodology, Human Rights Education, Escuela Nueva Methodology, Health and Family Life Education, Multi-grade teaching to name a few. In 1999 she was elevated to an acting position as Assistant Chief Education Officer (Secondary) and several years later was appointed to the post in 2001.
During this time she received additional training in supervision organized by International Institute of Educational Planning, writing for Distance Education and the like.
She represented this country at several regional and international forum including Barbados, Jamaica, Belize, Grenada, Guatemala and the United Kingdom.
She was a member of two Committees at the Caribbean Examinations Council, namely SUBSEC and FAC.
Chapman acted as Deputy Chief Education Officer (Development) from 2005 — 2010 and then in 2011 she was appointed Deputy Chief Education Officer (Administration).
This individual also taught part-time at the University of Guyana.
She continues to travel across Guyana because she is tasked with supervising and monitoring the work of Regional Education Officers and District Education Officers.
Chapman has been a Member of a number of Boards including Cyril Potter College of Education, St. Stanislaus College, and the National Library and is a past Vice President of the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association Board.
Even though she is at the door of retirement, this energetic lady glowingly stated, “I’m not sure if I can actually go into fulltime retirement but I am hopeful that in five years time I will go into semi-retirement because education is my life.”
Although people see her as a straight jacket in reality she remains a stickler for development at the highest possible level.
She humbly expressed gratitude to several persons for their support and encouragement along the journey that she is on such as her family both immediate and extended: Uncle Fitzroy Weever who now has the role as big brother and confidante her sisters: Jennifer and Jacqueline.
She is also appreciative of the support from her church family especially sister Adams and Lynette who continue to be her (spiritual) mothers. She also spoke of mentors to whom she remains eternally grateful for the faith they have in her abilities and well being such as Oswald Kendall (the Principal at Christ Church Secondary), former CEO, Ed Caesar, former CEO, Ms. Genevieve Whyte – Nedd, Florine Dalgetty, Barbara Atherly, Dr Kenneth Hunte, and numerous friends who fight for her when she couldn’t. She also did not leave out her secretarial staff, past and present, whom she said “made me look great by their works – Ms Sharon Howes, Sandra Adams, Debbie Bamfield and Natasha Rutherford”.

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