Dora educator committed to her job and students

WHEN Joycelyn Joseph started as a teacher 25 years ago, there were many challenges to contend with in the education sector, especially in remote parts of the country. Today, when things have been made easier with technology, she wishes that the children of Dora Primary School would have access to the internet!

The 44-year-old Senior Assistant Mistress loves the pupils of her class and goes to great lengths to help them, not just on the academic side of things, but even beyond. She believes in listening patiently to the stories they share, which often provide great insight into their circumstances at home.

Joycelyn, a mother of one, lives at De Cottage, a community along the Demerara River close to Dora. Each day, she’d use her engine boat to drive about 15 to 20 minutes from her home to the school.

In an interview with Pepperpot Magazine a few days ago, Joycelyn, a mostly quiet, hardworking teacher, said she never gets tired of her daily routine of travelling on the river. This, she shared, is mainly because she loves her job as a teacher.

Such love moves her to go beyond just teaching the children. For example, if the classroom needs painting, she wouldn’t hesitate to do it herself. If the furniture or toilets need some cleaning, she wouldn’t necessarily wait on the school cleaner.

“You have to love teaching,” she stressed, adding, “If you don’t love teaching and don’t have the patience; the tolerance, then you’ll give up.” She’s often seen this scenario play out before her very eyes, where some of today’s young teachers cannot keep up with the work involved in teaching because they simply do not love the job enough.

“The young teachers are unable to manage with the work; maybe it’s too much for them or something. But you have to love it to continue in the profession,” she again mentioned. Teaching all of the subjects, Joycelyn has the help of four other teachers at the school.

She especially likes to spend time with the younger children because she said she learns a lot from them. “Some of the little children might speak of what’s happening at home. Many of them have a lot of home issues. You have to sit and listen to them. Sometimes I have to be a teacher to them, a social worker, a nurse, and everything else.”

Internet Hub
The student population of Dora is said to be too small to attract the attention of authorities so far as constructing a secondary school is concerned. This means that as soon as the pupils write their Grade Six exams, many of them will migrate to roadside communities where they can have easy access to a school.

The pupils at Dora Primary have the benefit of textbooks, but Joycelyn feels that in this day and age, an internet hub in the area would do much more. “We want to be able to have the internet. We have textbooks, but the children are not able to look at videos and so forth. Sometimes they’re just reading the book, but not getting it,” she explained.

However, she noted that the challenges present today are nothing compared with what she had to deal with when she first started teaching. This is because there are no televisions, computers and phones to make life easier.

Going to UG
Joycelyn didn’t get the opportunity to attend the University of Guyana, but she still thinks that there is time for her to do so. “I still think I can. You should never give up. I want to study education,” she shared.

After her child completes Grade Six, she is hoping to be able to get a transfer to another school so that they can attend secondary school and she too can perhaps use the time to attend university.

She surely wouldn’t mind returning home to serve once she completes her studies. “Working in this area is nice. It’s very quiet, spacious; the air is fresh, and the scenery is great.”
However, Joycelyn cannot help but be bothered by the erosion happening in front of the school, along with other issues having to do with the school ceiling and wharf. She’s also hoping that the authorities will look into providing some more sports equipment at the school for the benefit of the children.