NANDANI Narine, well known as ‘Teacher Nandani’ on the island of Leguan and all across the West Coast Demerara, had to make lots of sacrifices to be able to obtain a secondary education. One such sacrifice was selling milk in La Bagatelle Village before attending school. This earned her the nickname ‘Milk Girl.’

While at Maryville Primary School, Headmaster Harold Singh (now deceased) observed Teacher Nandani’s ability, and suggested that she should take private extra lessons. This was out of the question for her, as she was well aware of her family’s financial situation and that extra lessons could not be facilitated.

Mr. Singh, however, approached Teacher Nandani’s father and urged him to consider sending her for the lessons. The cost for the extra lessons was one dollar and fifty cents. Her father, Mr Naroon Narine, agreed, but only if Teacher Nandani would make the sacrifice of selling milk each day before going to school.

Teacher Nandani agreed, and today she is happy that she did! “The sacrifices are very much worth it,” she reflected, during an interview with the Chronicle a few days ago.

Teacher Nandani, now 60, was born and raised at La Bagatelle, but she now lives in Belfield, another Leguan village. She is now a retired headmistress, having taught for some 35 years. She is
presently employed on a part-time basis with the Ministry of Home Affairs as a Liaison Officer for Community policing in Leguan.
She has also been working part-time with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) since in the 1990s. She started as a presiding officer and then became a trainer in Leguan, before becoming the Elections Clerk. For the recent Claims and Objections, she served as an Assistant Regional Officer.

Teacher Nandani attended Maryville Primary and later secured a place at Zeeburg Secondary. “Back then, there was no nursery school, and it was very difficult to obtain a secondary education, but my parents made great sacrifices for me. In those days, in the 1960s, money was not as plentiful as it is now. My two sisters, Rosa and Shirley, made tremendous sacrifices for me too, to go to secondary school. They cut rice (and) sell milk in order to raise money. And when I started secondary school, people were surprised. They said, ‘Oh my God! Milk gyal ah guh high school’.”

Teacher Nandani wrote the London-based General Certificate of Education (GCE) and was successful with seven subjects. In 1974, Teacher Nandani started teaching at Success Primary before moving on to Maryville Primary, the very primary school she attended. Later, she went to be trained at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), and was subsequently promoted to senior mistress in 1992 at Richmond Hill Primary.

She then left the island for Morashee in 1995, where she continued to teach. “You have to love teaching in order to be successful in the field. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else,” Teacher Nandani has said.

In 2010, she had to return home to care for her elderly mother, Mrs. Rajpattie (now deceased) once her sister had migrated to Canada. Incidentally, her mother was well-known on the island as ‘Milk Lady.’

CONTENTMENT
At the beginning of each school week, Teacher Nandani recalled, her mom would give her 25 cents and tell her to make it last for the entire week. This was the same amount of money her peers would receive, only thing is that they received that amount daily. “But I was very contented,” she said.
Her father was a labourer and her mother and two sisters went along with him to work in the backdam.

Teacher Nandani loves the qualities of honesty and humility. “I don’t like people lying to me. Haughtiness gets you nowhere. I love simple people. I like to help people. I am a giver. In life, there are givers and takers. I love to give,” she expressed.

She is hoping that everything regarding the upcoming General and Regional Elections in Guyana would take place in a decent atmosphere. “As we are approaching elections, I wish that we have a peaceful one. Whatever are the results, I want people to accept and let Guyana move forward. As it is, I think for the past three years we haven’t been making any headway, and I think the young people are suffering because the government cannot create jobs and things like that.”

Teacher Nandani is married to Mr. Ajit Kumar and they have a son, Armand.

By Telesha Ramnarine