By Telesha Vidya Ramnarine
TEACHER Anoopwattie Veeren was a beloved mom, grandmother, and teacher who touched the lives of many in different generations as she served in Guyana’s education system for some 53 years.It is for this reason that her sudden death on Sunday, November 1, 2013, drove a hole in the hearts of many.

She was the very essence of a good teacher and she always believed that to succeed in the field, one has to love the children they are teaching and view them as their own. That is what she had told the Guyana Chronicle in an interview just months before her untimely passing.
Ms. Veeren, informally called ‘Anoops’, was admitted to the Balwant Singh Hospital after she found herself with symptoms of what appeared to be flu. When she visited the hospital, she chatted as normal with others and even filled out her forms for admission.
“We didn’t think she would be admitted. She worked up to the day before she decided to go to the hospital. We definitely didn’t see this coming. It was a big blow to us,” her daughter Marci Veeren told this newspaper last Thursday.
The family was in shock. Marci knew her mother as someone was always so active and independent, and furthermore, suffered from no serious illness. She believes that it was her four grandchildren that were really affected by their grandmother’s death.
Ms. Veeren was indeed very close to her grandchildren and could not stop talking about them during her interview with the Chronicle. She had insisted that their photos be carried along with hers for the previous article.

Marci recalls that it was only until Ms. Veeren’s funeral that the family came to appreciate how many lives were touched by her mother. Many wrote letters expressing themselves to the family.
Ms. Veeren, who would have been 70 years by now, started her teaching career at the Helena Primary School at Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, when she was only 15 years old; and believe it or not, this is the only school at which she has ever taught! She spent 40 years teaching at this school which she herself attended as a child.
Who could have foretold when her mother dropped a five-year-old Anoopwattie there, that she would be integrally involved in the affairs of that institution for the next 50 years?
“I never left, basically because the school was located a street away from my home. So I bypassed promotions, and my juniors went off ahead of me, because I didn’t want to move. I waited when the opportunities arrived at that same school,” she recalled in our interview.
So, from being an ordinary teacher, she progressed to becoming a senior mistress, then deputy headmistress, then finally headmistress. She retired as a graduate headmistress in 2000.
Even though it was mandatory for her to retire at the age of 55, it did not prevent her from tutoring on a private basis, holding, in the afternoons, classes for students of various schools.

Teaching at 15?
What made it possible for someone to teach at the age of 15 back in Ms. Veeren’s days?
“Teaching at such a young age was possible at that time because, when you finished school, you wrote the School Leaving Exams; and once you passed it, the headmistress made a little class with whoever passed, and have them study for the pupil/teacher appointment.” Once the individual passed the pupil/teacher exam, he/she was immediately appointed as a teacher, with the condition that he/she writes this exam each year for four years. “This then entitled you to enter training college. It was equivalent to four subjects GCE; and after college for two years, you came out as a Grade One trained teacher.”
Having succeeded at that level, Ms. Veeren next attended the University of Guyana, and progressed all the more in her teaching career, obtaining several awards for her work. She received a Teacher of the Year award from the Ministry of Education in 1989; the Woman of Distinction Award from the Baha’i Movement in 1999; and the Guyana Teachers Union Award for long, dedicated and conscientious service in 2001.
She was also honoured, in May 2011, for great service in education, and leadership roles in humanitarian work, by the S&S Supermarket on behalf of the people of Mahaica in May 2011.
Ms. Veeren had married Leo Jerome Veeren (now deceased) who had lived one street away from where she was living, and spent 23 years of her life with him. They parented four children; and later, they welcomed four grandchildren.
Apart from teaching part time, at the time of her death, she was a member of the Teaching Service Commission, where, she was responsible for the appointment of teachers, having a say in hiring, firing, and disciplining.
She was also a Justice of the Peace, Commissioner of Oaths to Affidavits, the Chairperson of the Mahaica People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Group, Chairperson of the Mahaica Women’s Progressive Organisation (WPO), Central Committee Member of the WPO, and Education Secretary of the Regional Body of Region Four B of the PPP. She was also the Chairlady of the Unity / Vereeniging Neighbourhood Democratic Council.

The Greatest Secret
A good teacher is not necessarily one who gets a child to pass an exam. For example, Ms. Veeren has observed that some teachers looked for the brighter children and focused their attention on them. “But you need to go down to the level of the others. You must first find out where the child is, and go down to his/her level and then bring him/her up. You must pay attention to your weaker children; and I think that is the greatest secret in teaching,” she said.
She had observed that a good teacher must be patient, love the children under his/her care, and view them as if they are his/her own children. “When a child comes to school, he/she might come with an empty stomach from a home that was full of war and quarrel. You have to find out the background of the child. Most children who misbehave in school are those without parents, who were left with a grandparent who can’t control them.”
Ms. Veeren recalled that she always wanted to become a teacher, and succeeded at it because she loved children. “And that’s what kept me in teaching. It wasn’t the money. I see children as precious commodities. Children are a blessing, and when we are blessed with them, we should ensure that we make every sacrifice to give them the best healthcare, the best education, and the best of love and attention. Then and only then can we retire in happiness and contentment. For as we begin to fade away along the journey of life, we will be able to look back in admiration at the blooms we have left behind,” she expressed.
She recalled how fortunate she was to have had good role models as teachers such as her headmaster, Mr. Matadin Ragu, and other teachers like Mr. Majeed Mohammed.
A good role model herself to younger teachers and students, Ms. Veeren said there was nothing as good as when she observed her students doing well in school. “When the results come out and you see how happy the children and their parents are, you feel as though you have all the wealth in the world.”
Ms. Veeren married the late Leo Jerome Veeren, who had lived one street away from where she was living, and spent 23 years of her life with him. They parented four children, Carla, Sharda, Marci and Ricardo; and later, five grandchildren, Noel, Arianne, Shane, Shaya and Leo. She never met Leo.