By Lakhram Bhagirat
Though teaching was not her initial career choice, Brenda Kendall Ramsara can never see herself doing anything else other than teaching at this point in her life. The profession is one that she has grown to love as she feels at home in the classroom setting.
For Ramsara, seeing her students’ advancement after the completion of their formal education makes her immensely proud to know that she played a part in their development. For her, 17 years seems to have flown by because every day of teaching feels like the first day. She is still filled with the burning passion to ensure that the future generation can function at their best.
The Fort Ordinance Primary School teacher said ensuring the students of Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) are given the best chance at quality education is what drives her passion. She loves every aspect of her job and would not trade it for any other in the world.
Ramsara entered the profession in 2002 but at that time, it was not something she wanted to do.
After graduating from the Berbice Educational Institute upon the completion of her Caribbean Examinations Council exams in 1996, Ramsara went on to the New Amsterdam Technical Institute where she graduated with a certificate in Business Studies.
“After I finished [NA]TI and got a certificate in Business, I was home then for a while. After I got a job with a family friend real estate business and it was during that time I applied for a teaching job.”
“Teaching was not my first option and it had a few teachers around me who inspired me and I chose to get into it and as I started my profession, I fell in love with my job. Being in the classroom eases me and I am happy to know that I am privileged enough to get the opportunity to impart my knowledge to the children under my care for those hours. Most importantly, I am glad to learn from them because we don’t know everything. Yes, I am a teacher but you deal with children from all walks of life and sometimes they would come and tell you something that you did not know so it is a learning experience for me as well,” she said.
For Ramsara, a good teacher is the one who ensures that the children under their care get the requisite knowledge to be able to function as effective adults but a great teacher is one who not only imparts their knowledge but also shapes that student using the relevant experience. She went on to say that a teacher goes above and beyond to ensure that their students understand the concept of what is being taught in the classroom and prepares them to function in a society that challenges their very being.
She said that she not only prepares her students to be productive adults, rather she goes the further step in providing them with the foundation that would make them exceptional leaders in society. It is quite often said that if you love what you do then you will never work a day in your life and ever since she joined the staff at Fort Ordinance Primary School in 2002, Ramsara has never worked a day in her life.
“I feel like a second mother to my students. The opportunity of seeing these students progress after primary and secondary schools makes me feel happy and content to know that I impacted their lives somewhere. I try to be the best role model for them.”
