– young Winiperu teacher happy to work in his own village

VINCENT Williams, a young teacher in Winiperu, deeply appreciates the efforts of the teachers who helped to give him an education when he was growing up in the village. He understands the value of what he has received, in part, because not many persons in the profession were willing to accept a placement at the primary school in this extremely remote village.

This reality is mainly responsible for Vincent’s decision to stay in the village and “give back,” even though he’s had opportunities to be placed elsewhere or could’ve easily moved to another location that would’ve allowed for him to pursue his personal goals.

Growing up, the 22-year-old wanted to become a doctor, but having finished school, he realised that teachers were needed to assist the children in the community. So he decided that he will resort to teaching at the very school that he attended.

“It feels good because I am giving back to the community. Just as how people educated me, children here need someone to do the same for them,” Vincent expressed during an interview with Pepperpot Magazine at the Winiperu Primary school.

“Most people don’t want to come in these areas to teach, so it feels good, because I want the children to have the same experience, or even a better one than me, when I was going to school here,” Vincent, now teaching for four years, further said.

Videos and Worksheets
Recalling his days in school, Vincent hardly had access to videos and a lot of worksheets, so he is happy that such aids are more readily available to the children at the moment, especially for his Grades Three and Four pupils who need more than just the textbook experience to studying.

“Things have become more modernised. We now use videos and a lot of worksheets. In my time, we hadn’t those things,” he reflected. Apart from being effective tools for the children, they also help make Vincent’s teaching job easier.

But the problem is that a reliable supply of electricity and internet is not available at Winiperu, so Vincent would have to ensure that he makes good use of his monthly trips to Bartica and download whatever content he needs to take back to the children.

“We need reliable electricity, like solar panels or something. Two main things are internet and electricity. Without these, you can’t really do anything these days.”

In the village, logging company Vaiterna Private Holdings would put on its generator from 18:00 to 21:00 hours, and then from about 05:30 to roughly 08:00 hours. Even so, the signal would only be strong enough to probably just send a few messages.

“The internet signal works with the current. We have printers and so, but it’s difficult to come down here at the school in the nights. So in the mornings, you have to hustle and do whatever you need to [do] before the current goes off,” Vincent explained.

Beautiful and Easy
Irrespective of how challenging it might be to remain in the teaching profession, Vincent said he loves Winiperu simply because, “It is home; beautiful and easy.
“It wasn’t my first-choice profession, but in time I got to love it. It feels good to give back to the community’s children, and things are far better now because we didn’t have teachers back then while the population was much more,” he shared.
Now that school is back in full swing, Vincent has the help of three other teachers at the school with about 28 pupils.