Shas­tri Boodan

The Wa­ter­loo High School in Cara­pichaima cel­e­brat­ed its 25th an­niver­sary on Oc­to­ber 2, mark­ing a quar­ter cen­tu­ry of aca­d­e­m­ic ex­cel­lence, cul­tur­al de­vel­op­ment, and ser­vice to the com­mu­ni­ty.

In a heart­felt ad­dress to stu­dents, staff, alum­ni, and guests, Prin­ci­pal Usha Cheer­an­jie de­scribed 2025 as “an ex­treme­ly sig­nif­i­cant year in the con­tin­u­ing sto­ry of the in­sti­tu­tion.”

“Over the past 25 years, our school has grown from hum­ble be­gin­nings to an in­sti­tu­tion that stands tall with pride,” she said. “We have not on­ly built class­rooms but nur­tured dreams in these class­rooms. We have not on­ly im­part­ed knowl­edge but in­spired cre­ativ­i­ty. We have not on­ly taught lessons but in­stilled val­ues.”

Cheer­an­jie re­flect­ed on the school’s trans­for­ma­tive jour­ney, not­ing that twen­ty year groups of stu­dents have since grad­u­at­ed from Wa­ter­loo High — many of whom have gone on to ex­cel as doc­tors, en­tre­pre­neurs, bankers, lawyers, jour­nal­ists, artists, and ed­u­ca­tors.

“This day is ded­i­cat­ed to every­one who has been a part of this in­cred­i­ble jour­ney,” she added. “A jour­ney that be­gan 25 years ago, when then Prime Min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day and then Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for­mal­ly opened these doors to re­ceive the chil­dren of pre­dom­i­nant­ly cane-field work­ers.”

Es­tab­lished as part of a shared na­tion­al vi­sion to pro­vide qual­i­ty ed­u­ca­tion to chil­dren from rur­al and un­der­priv­i­leged com­mu­ni­ties, Wa­ter­loo High School has since be­come a mod­el of holis­tic stu­dent de­vel­op­ment.

Un­der the lead­er­ship of its found­ing prin­ci­pal Ray­mond Ju­rawan, the school’s cul­ture was built on a bal­ance of aca­d­e­m­ic dis­ci­pline and cre­ative ex­plo­ration. Ju­rawan’s phi­los­o­phy con­tin­ues to echo through the in­sti­tu­tion’s mot­to, “Sapi­en­ta ut Vi­va­mus Bene” — “Wis­dom for liv­ing well” — a guid­ing prin­ci­ple that has in­spired 25 years of achieve­ment and growth.

Cheer­an­jie cred­it­ed Ju­rawan for “steer­ing the in­sti­tu­tion in the right di­rec­tion and fos­ter­ing an en­vi­ron­ment root­ed in tra­di­tion yet ready to evolve.”

Over the past two and a half decades, Wa­ter­loo High has dis­tin­guished it­self across aca­d­e­mics, sports, the per­form­ing arts, and in­no­va­tion. Among its most no­table ac­com­plish­ments are:

Aca­d­e­m­ic Ex­cel­lence

2 Open Schol­ar­ships

13 Na­tion­al Schol­ar­ships

Mul­ti­ple uni­ver­si­ty bur­saries and awards

Sci­ence and In­no­va­tion

De­fend­ing cham­pi­ons of the 2024 As­tro Quiz Com­pe­ti­tion

Pre­vi­ous wins in 2010, 2020, 2021, and 2023

The on­ly gov­ern­ment sec­ondary school to con­sis­tent­ly reach the fi­nals and emerge five-time cham­pi­ons

Recog­nised as “Most Promis­ing New and Emerg­ing Team” in the na­tion­al Lego League Com­pe­ti­tion

Lead­er­ship and Ser­vice

Twice win­ners and two-time run­ners-up in the RBTT Young Lead­ers Com­pe­ti­tion

Per­form­ing Arts

2024 Na­tion­al Schools’ Tas­sara­ma Cham­pi­ons

Three-time fi­nal­ists in the Na­tion­al Schools’ Panora­ma Com­pe­ti­tion

Sports

Male crick­et team se­cured three zon­al cham­pi­onship wins

Two fe­male crick­eters se­lect­ed for Na­tion­al and West In­dies rep­re­sen­ta­tion

Vi­su­al Arts

Win­ners of both the 2023 Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion’s Art Com­pe­ti­tion and the Chi­nese Em­bassy Art Com­pe­ti­tion

Look­ing Ahead

As the school looks to the fu­ture, Cheer­an­jie said the in­sti­tu­tion re­mains com­mit­ted to nur­tur­ing well-round­ed cit­i­zens who com­bine knowl­edge with com­pas­sion and cre­ativ­i­ty with dis­ci­pline.

“Our stu­dents are proof that where you start does not de­ter­mine where you end up,” she said. “Wa­ter­loo High was built on the dreams of a com­mu­ni­ty — and 25 years lat­er, those dreams con­tin­ue to grow.”

The an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions in­clud­ed cul­tur­al per­for­mances, alum­ni trib­utes, and a show­case of stu­dent achieve­ments, reaf­firm­ing Wa­ter­loo High School’s en­dur­ing role in shap­ing minds and trans­form­ing lives in cen­tral Trinidad.