Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Back in the day, Nel­son Street Boys' RC School was well-known for its aca­d­e­m­ic ex­cel­lence. It was the top choice for a pri­ma­ry school ed­u­ca­tion, and many rich, white and non-white fam­i­lies of staunch Catholic back­grounds en­sured that their sons were en­rolled there. Promi­nent doc­tors, lawyers, ed­u­ca­tors, ca­lyp­so­ni­ans, busi­ness­men and dis­tin­guished me­dia prac­ti­tion­ers have emerged from the school, in south-east Port-of-Spain. But the great in­sti­tu­tion, which pro­duced such il­lus­tri­ous char­ac­ters as Pro­fes­sor Courte­nay Bartholomew, Dr Hol­lis Liv­er­pool, aka "Chalk­dust," Lennox Grant, Kei­th Smith, Dr An­tho­ny Sab­ga, George Cham­bers, Claude Mar­tineau, among many oth­ers, is to­day far from what it once used to be.

Known for win­ning "ex­hi­bi­tions" (schol­ar­ships) to pres­ti­gious col­leges, Nel­son Street Boys' now strug­gles to ac­quire one spot in a top Catholic sec­ondary school in Port-of-Spain. This year, out of a to­tal of 58 boys who wrote the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am­i­na­tion, 22 have to re­sit the ex­am. One boy was for­tu­nate to se­cure a place at the famed Queen's Roy­al Col­lege. In a re­cent in­ter­view with the Sun­day Guardian, Dr Liv­er­pool and Pro­fes­sor Bartholomew rem­i­nisced about their boy­hood days. Giv­ing a de­tailed ac­count of his time there, Dr Liv­er­pool shed light on what caused such an es­teemed ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tion to fal­ter. Speak­ing with a great de­gree of pride, Dr Liv­er­pool said: "I am part of that school." He was star­tled at the num­ber of boys who have to re­sit the ex­am, and said he didn't re­alise the school "was so bad­ly off."

The as­so­ciate pro­fes­sor at UTT said via tele­phone, that when­ev­er he passed by the school his heart skipped a beat. Not on­ly did he at­tend the school, but taught there for sev­en years. "I know what I went through. I taught there for years, and the stan­dards were very high." He re­called get­ting a sound lick­ing when he didn't place among the first 100 ex­hi­bi­tion­ers. "I got a lick­ing on my bot­tom...It was six strokes for not com­ing in the first 100..." ." He added the school used to win some 40-60 ex­hi­bi­tions, and that among Nel­son Street Boys', East­ern Boys' Gov­ern­ment, Rosary Boys', Tran­quil­li­ty Gov­ern­ment and Bel­mont In­ter­me­di­ate, "We ruled the roost."

Ded­i­cat­ed teach­ers

He re­called go­ing to school for 7 am, even though the bell was rung at 8.30. The teach­ers were present and were will­ing to go the ex­tra mile be­fore the ac­tu­al school day be­gan. "I sat in class be­fore school start­ed, and there were ded­i­cat­ed teach­ers who had yuh tail go­ing. They worked their butts off to get boys to pass ex­ams." Call­ing out names fond­ly, he re­mem­bered Syd­ney Dedi­er, Mr Mil­lette, Dan­ny­boy and R Stephens. To­day, he said it was dif­fi­cult to find the type of ded­i­ca­tion which those teach­ers demon­strat­ed. "We have lost that...Those teach­ers worked un­til 4 pm."

The vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian gave his per­spec­tives about the school's aca­d­e­m­ic plunge. He said the boys came from all over the coun­try and were of good fam­i­ly stand­ing. "Long time, boys came from all over...half-whites, rich East In­di­an boys all came. "Boys of good fam­i­ly sock, good boys who were well-pruned in their homes. "You had to be a Catholic to get in." Now, he said, most boys come from the Nel­son Street area. Dr Liv­er­pool said the change came about dur­ing the 80s. Not for­get­ting the "cut ar­se," he said that was the way they learnt. "We learnt by the cut ar­se method, as op­posed to those who say don't beat.

His rec­om­men­da­tions

"Dis­ci­pline was at the high­est...There was no rea­son for in­dis­ci­pline." Un­like the boys of to­day, Dr Liv­er­pool said the pupils back then had a vi­sion of where they were head­ing. "We had a vi­sion of where we were go­ing, and that meant to get mon­ey in­to the so­ci­ety and to get a car and a house, land and wife, and to be ed­u­cat­ed. "That was in our heads from day one; un­like to­day, where boys smoke weed and shoot for a liv­ing."

He rec­om­mend­ed that the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and its of­fi­cials de­vel­op a spe­cial ed­u­ca­tion unit to deal with slow learn­ers, those with learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties and those plagued with so­cial prob­lems. "They have to change the cur­ricu­lum. They have to bring teach­ers who are pre­pared to work with stu­dents and who will work close­ly with par­ents. "Try to elim­i­nate prob­lems from chil­dren. "The so­ci­ety is to be blamed, be­cause a prob­lem child is a child with prob­lems." He added that the Par­ent/Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion should pay a key role in a pupil's aca­d­e­m­ic de­vel­op­ment.

�2 Next week: Prof Bartholomew's per­spec­tives, snip­pets of his ad­dress to the grad­u­at­ing class in June, and his ad­dress in 1981 in trib­ute to George Cham­bers, for­mer prime min­is­ter and pupil of Nel­son Street Boys'.