Honorees for 2008

VELMA REDHEAD :
School teachers play an essential part in helping children to acquire and develop the knowledge and skills they will need in later life.
A teacher is an advisor, coach, guide, lecturer, trainer, counselor, and someone who can change a life with the right amount of love and understanding.
Their role is to motivate young people and encourage them to reach their full potential; to be creative in order to bring subjects to life; to be able to relate to young people and gain their trust; to like and respect young people and enjoy working with them; and to be enthusiastic about their subject(s) and up-to-date with new developments.

Velma Redhead possesses all these traits, and more, which she used selflessly and successfully to influence and shape the lives of thousands of young women she taught during her 43-year career in education at the Mucurapo Girls Primary School in St James.

Evidence of the esteem in which she is held in the St James community is manifested daily in the many positive and kind responses to any query about her existence.

Velma retired from the profession and institution to which she gave her life and love in May 1999. As she notes with undisguised pride: "Mucurapo Girls Primary School had been my home from ages 5 to 12 and 17 to 60."

She started her teaching career in January 1958 at Mucurapo Girls, following her secondary education pursued at Progressive Educational Institute on Henry Street in Port-of-Spain, under the astute guidance of the late Hamilton Holder.

It was because of the impressive grades she secured in the Senior Cambridge Examination that she was offered the position to teach at her then alma mater. Indeed, such was the keenness of the Principal to have her on board that her salary between January and March of that year was made of subscriptions taken up by staff members, until she received her official appointment as a Standard One teacher in April.

A few years later her specific career path would be charted through a simple circumstance. A Standard Five teacher fell ill and Velma was asked by the Principal to take over the class of children preparing for their School Leaving Examination. That she was extremely successful in carrying out her duties was borne out by the excellent results the school acquired after the exam. So much so that Velma was never removed from teaching Standard Five children and eventually became known as "the exhibition teacher."

With the onset of the Common Entrance Examination some years later, Velma began giving what she describes as "personal aid" to pupils of the class. This giving of her free time to ensure that her charges were properly prepared for the examination progressed to what became "private lessons" that saw children from all over the community congregating by "Miss Redhead" for tuition. The rest, as they say, is history.

When in 1992 Velma had by then become the most senior member of staff, she passed up a promotion for the post of Vice Principal.

"I had fallen in love with teaching the examination class, and did not want to move," she recalls.

Nevertheless, when the position of Principal became vacant in 1996, Velma said she was "ordered" to apply for the post which she held with distinction until 1999.

Since retiring Velma has, unfortunately, not enjoyed the best of health, having to undergo several surgeries and other procedures over the past few years. This, however, has not daunted her spirit or lessened her faith, as she approaches each new day confident in the knowledge that the God that has watched over her all her life will never forsake her.

She is thankful to Sisters Anne and Gabriel, the two Nuns from whom she received guidance and encouragement in the early stages of her chosen career. She lives today, still upholding the values she learnt as a child, and which she tried to instill in all children during her immensely satisfying and outstanding career as a teacher.