RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Con­do­lences are con­tin­u­ing to pour in fol­low­ing the pass­ing of Table­land Sec­ondary School prin­ci­pal Ra­jesh Ram, who has died of COVID-19.

Ram, 49, a fa­ther of three suc­cumbed to the virus on Tues­day night.

In a pub­lic Face­book post, his for­mer stu­dent Shellyann Duff wrote, "This man sat with me in a class­room at the low­est point when I was strug­gling in chem­istry and re­mind­ed me to keep my head up. He gave me free chem­istry and maths lessons at times be­cause I couldn't af­ford ...

Stood smil­ing at me when he saw me do­ing my mas­ter at UWI," Duff wrote.

She said Ram in­flu­enced her life and im­pact­ed her des­tiny.

Ram's friend and col­league Lyns­ley Doo­d­hai, the for­mer pres­i­dent of the TT Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, al­so ex­pressed shock over his pass­ing.

Doo­d­hai said he en­joyed play­ing All Fours with Ram who was a dis­tin­guished and com­mit­ted ed­u­ca­tor.

MP for Princes Town Bar­ry Padarath al­so shared sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments.

"Prin­ci­pal Ram touched the lives of many per­sons es­pe­cial­ly chil­dren and stu­dents. He was an out­stand­ing ed­u­ca­tor and a re­mark­able hu­man be­ing. Our con­stituen­cy is in­deed sad­dened by his pass­ing," Padarath said.

Ram's son Ra­jeev was a schol­ar­ship to the win­ner. The prin­ci­pal and his wife Sadee Sanichar-Ram were the founders of the Ex­ot­ic Fruit Plant Shed in New Grant and were al­ways will­ing to help oth­ers.

On Wednes­day, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly say­ing, "The Ex­ec­u­tive and staff of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion ex­tends sin­cere con­do­lences to the be­reaved fam­i­ly and friends of Mr Ra­jesh Ram, Prin­ci­pal of Table­land Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School, who passed away on Tues­day 10th Au­gust 2021."

Mean­while, the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) al­so ex­pressed sad­ness over Ram's pass­ing. Fu­ner­al arrange­ments will be is­sued lat­er on as de­tails come to hand.