A community’s commitment to learning

WE HAVE all heard about the steadfast importance of education from parents, aunts, uncles, or community elders. However, schooling in far-flung communities can be challenging, where the commute to school is two hours longer and by boat rather than bus. These adversities have been tackled head-on by the people of Mashabo, both teachers and students alike. As educators venture into the community to teach at primary and secondary levels, high schoolers make the daily commute out of the village. The village is now working on a new project for its education sector, training young men and women from their community as teachers. They say education is the pillar of every society, and Mashabo is on a mission to strengthen those pillars.

No stranger to the Pepperpot Magazine, headteacher at Mashabo Primary, Modi Beepat, says the village’s education sector has grown along with the population, with more teachers being brought in to educate more children. A son of the Essequibo Coast, ‘Sir Beepat’ started teaching right out of school, igniting a childhood passion. As he shared, “I started teaching in 1999. I have been teaching all my years so far. I started at Primary first, then at Mashabo Primary here, and then at Smith Memorial Primary in Georgetown. I returned here to Mashabo, and today I’m still teaching here at Mashabo Primary. Teaching has been an enjoyable job over the years. I have really enjoyed it.”

Assessing the village’s success in education, the community has done much more than come a long way; they have risen to the standard of any other school along the Essequibo coast—a goal once deemed impossible. Sir Beepat shared, “When we came here in 2013, we didn’t have passes for about 30 years to Secondary School. And so we decided to work with the teachers, and no one person can do it by themselves. We worked with the Ministry of Education and donor agencies like the Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association. We all worked together, and we were able to achieve success in 2018 after 30 years of no passes.”

Today, Mashabo is striving to have more teachers from within the community. The young people are stepping up to the plate, with several young men and women currently attending Cyril Potter’s College of Education. As stated by the headmaster, “When I started working here, we only had one teacher from the community—an untrained teacher. Today, 50% of the staff are residents of the community. My aim is that before I leave here at Mashabo, we want 100% of the teachers to be residents and manage the school by themselves.” He further added, “The government has numerous interventions. They introduced the teachers’ cash grant. All the classrooms are child-friendly, and this has also helped to increase attendance. When pupils feel comfortable, they want to be there in the classrooms.”

The community now has more teachers than ever, and as the standard of education develops, so does the reception of pupils and parents. Mashabo now seemingly has a revitalised ambition for academic excellence among its children. Sir Beepat stated, “We have good cooperation here from the teachers, the parents, the pupils. There is no form of indiscipline among the pupils. They are very disciplined and dedicated. Attendance is really good—we have an attendance of over 90%.”

Major infrastructural investments have also been made, with the introduction of a village ICT hub and the Guyana Learning Channel, both of which are powered by solar energy. As the headteacher stated, “More recently, we had the introduction of internet service at the school. So, pupils now have access to the internet. It’s good internet, where pupils can actually do research and find things out for themselves. That has helped us to use an inquiry approach in teaching.” He further stated, “In addition to that, the government has launched the Learning Channel at the school. We have three televisions, and we log in with other schools across the country. The pupils not only see the teachers at school but also teachers countrywide with a lot of resources. This is a boost for our teachers.”

In a village like Mashabo, schools are vital to the development of the community. This is why the school is working along with the government to be that second home to children, with more hot meals being provided for the children. As shared by Sir Beepat, “Very importantly, our school is having a feeding programme. That feeding programme has helped tremendously with attendance. Prior to 2024, it only catered for a lunch, a hot meal. But now, it’s been expanded to include breakfast for the pupils, which has increased attendance.”

There are countless differences between life in Mashabo and life elsewhere on the Essequibo coast, but the village is adamant about being up to par in education and the skills of its people. Tranquillity and beauty are just a few more things Mashabo has to offer. As Sir Beepat shared, “There are lots of differences between living on the East Coast and in Mashabo. One of the biggest is peace. It’s very peaceful here, very scenic. We don’t have parents coming in to bombard teachers or beat them up. The pupils are very disciplined and listen to the teachers.”

Education is, without a doubt, important and comes with a variety of challenges from community to community and from child to child. Mashabo is taking what can only be called a collaborative effort, showing that it really does take a village to raise a child. As Sir Beepat emphasised, education is vital—it’s the pillar of any community. At school here, we try our utmost to ensure pupils are able to read first. You learn to read, and then you read to learn. Once pupils have a proper education, they can become anyone they want to be.”