WHAT MADE QUEEN’S COLLEGE THE LEGEND?

Nov 17, 2024 Consumer Concerns, Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine

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 …CONSUMER CONCERNS

 

By Pat Dial

Kaieteur News-Recently, the alumni, the students, the teachers and most of the Guyanese community celebrated the 180th anniversary of the founding of Queen’s College in 1844.  The late Professor Norman Cameron who taught mathematics to generations of boys and later taught at the University of Guyana wrote the definitive History of the School which needs to be updated.  Dr. Patrick Dial, the oldest surviving Master who taught at the School over 70 years ago, in this article, supplements the encomiums which had been showered on the School at the anniversary celebrations.

The President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, was the guest of honour at the celebrations and gave his charge to the students.  “You are indeed part of a rich legacy”. said President Ali, “Let there be no doubt, Queen’s College represents excellence.  I am sure without the shadow of a doubt that this institution will continue to produce some of our most illustrious sons and daughters.

There is no substitute for hard work, and you should never shortchange hard work.  But also never shortchange the environment that allows you to grow and achieve this accomplishment in your individual excellence”.  He enjoined students to maintain their relationship and contact with the communities from which they came; to give a helping hand to fellow students and not to allow the competitiveness of the school milieu obfuscate the fact that competition could be used as a way for all to succeed; and he further pointed out that true  human excellence and brilliance go beyond academic achievements or institutional recognition.  President Ali then advocated that the core values of Humanity – humility, tolerance, togetherness and equity be extended to the country as a whole so as to create a model society.

In the past, Queen’s College, “QC”, stood out as the unique and unchallengeable premier school in the country.  Now, even country schools are challenging it for that accolade.  One example of such a school is the Sarswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) of West Coast Demerara.  This school, from its very beginning, admitted children who could not be admitted to other schools because of their poor performance at the Common Entrance or  Grade Six and many of these former poor performers, with professional  teaching and a first class learning environment, did better than QC students.

In other words, there was an equalization of several other secondary schools such as Anna Regina, Bishops and St Stanislaus with QC and this equalization was due to QC shedding some of its distinctive past characteristics and some of the other secondary schools raising their standards.

Queens College has, however, still retained much of its past  mystique which attracts the creme de la creme of students who move from primary to secondary schools each year.

What are those distinctive past characteristics?  Until the 1940’s the majority of the staff and invariably the Headmasters were recruited in Britain.  They were all trained and experienced teachers and mainly earned their degrees from the best British Universities, in particular Oxford, Cambridge and London.

By the end of World War II, locals with similar qualifications were recruited to the staff and by the end of the 1950’s the staff had become almost completely Guyanized but the traditions and standards were meticulously maintained.  The QC staff were comparatively well-paid Civil Servants and treated teaching at Queen’s as a career.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s a few of the staff left to join the University or specialized positions in the Public Service and these included Robert Moore, Rashleigh Jackson and Insanally who joined the newly established Foreign Service where they had distinguished careers, Jackson and Insanally even becoming Ministers of Foreign Affairs;  Ramsammy and Drayton to initiate and organize the Science Sector of the University;  and Harold Persaud and Patrick Dial went to organise the National Archives and as Permanent Secretary.  These Masters who had decided to serve elsewhere evidenced the quality of the usual QC Master.

The Philosophy which guided the School was the same as that which guided the English Public Schools that is “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano”- cultivating a healthy mind in a healthy body and it is this Philosophy which informed all the activities of the School.

The bias in Guyanese Secondary Education, until very recently, had been Arts oriented.  Queen’s was the first Secondary School to establish a well equipped Laboratory and seriously taught Chemistry, Physics and Biology and the Queen’s Laboratory was among the best in the country.  Many of the boys who had studied Science at Queen’s went on to brilliant careers in Medicine or as Research Scientists both locally and abroad.

In keeping with the Philosophy of a Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body, Sports was an important part of the School’s curriculum.  Cricket, Football, Hockey, Athletics and indoor sports like Chess and Badminton were compulsory and the lower school forms and their form masters went out to the playground at least once per week.  The cricket teams played in the national competitions and one or two members of the QC cricket team were always able to be picked to represent the country in the Inter- Caribbean tournaments.  The Annual Sports Day was usually held at one of the major cricket clubs and was attended by guests from a cross section of the Society, earned the status of a national event and was reported in the newspapers.

The Cadet Corps usually consisted of three platoons and drilled twice per week with the help of sergeants from the Volunteer Force, later the GDF.  Three Masters who were interested gave their full time to the Cadets, trained at Takama and qualified as Lieutenants in the Volunteer Force, later GDF.  The Corps itself trained at Takama for two weeks in August every year. The Corps, led by the Lieutenants, took part in all national parades including Remembrance Day.  Members of the Corps were able to join the Army or the Police as a career and three such cadets come to mind – Commissioner of Police, Laurie Lewis and General Joe Singh and General David Granger.

The Library was by far the best school library in Guyana and was particularly useful during World War II when text books could not be imported.  It also had a comprehensive collection of books for young people.

Every class in the lower and middle school was  exposed to a music session once every week where they became acquainted with musical notation, the various ages of Music and the great composers.  Those who wished to go further in music could enroll for the Royal School of Music Examinations which was reasonably priced since Queen’s College was used as the Centre and the invigilators were volunteers from among the Masters, thus discounting local expenses. The school song was taught to and sung by all new entrants to the school and sung at all important occasions.  Since Latin was compulsory until about the 1970’s, the students understood it fully and the flavour of phrases and concepts like “nos exempla fratrum” (we are exemplars of fraternal love and respect) was digested in the consciousness of the boys.  Much reverence was given to the School song. The music teachers were all capable musicians and a teacher like Lynette Dolphin who was decorated with the rare national honour of Order of Roraima, was a Concert Pianist.

QC could recapture many of those characteristics which gave the school its legendary aura if it could have Headmasters/Mistresses like Sanger Davies or Doodnauth Hetram and a staff who were career oriented with teachers like N.E. Cameron, Clem Yansen and Chunilall.

(WHAT MADE QUEEN’S COLLEGE THE LEGEND?)

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• Alumni, By Pat Dial, CONSUMER CONCERNS, Guyanese community, Queens College, the students, the teachers

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