From being a school dropout to graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Public Management

…Chandroutie Barker tells of her rough journey to success

By Shane Marks

Chandroutie Barker, a 42-year-old mother of three, would next month be graduating from the University of Guyana with a bachelor’s degree in Public Management. The road she took to get to this stage was not an easy one; she has repeatedly had to overcome obstacles with tears, dedication and hard work.
Chandroutie ’s life first took a tragic turn for the worse when both of her parents died while she was just eleven years old. This became a determining factor for the life ahead of young Chandroutie.
Described as the worst thing that has happened to her: having to grow up without the love, care, and attention of a mother and father, young Chandroutie’s life quickly became too much for any child to handle.
After her parents died, the young girl was placed in the care of her older sister, during which she faced many hardships. At just 13 years old, Chandroutie’s impoverished lifestyle forced her to drop out of school. This broke her heart, especially after she had written the then Common Entrance Examinations (now known as the National Grade Six Assessment) and had received a placement at a Grade A school as a result of her outstanding performance.
Having been out of school for three full years at sixteen, Chandroutie’s family decided it was time for her to get married. It was a decision she wasn’t pleased with, but she had no say in the matter.
Sixteen-year-old Chandroutie, who had her whole life ahead of her, was forced to marry a man she didn’t even know that well, and wasn’t in love with. Just like that, her dream of falling in love and getting married to a man she loved was taken away from her as suddenly as her parents had been taken away.
The marriage was toxic and abusive because the man she was wedded to was a drug addict who never cared for her. During the marriage, Chandroutie was often in a state wherein people scorned her, because some days she ate and other days she had nothing to eat at all. And she couldn’t enjoy any of the fancy things that people her age were enjoying. She was so poor that her wardrobe consisted of only two dresses and a pair of rubber slippers.
The young woman went on to give birth to three children, who likewise suffered in poverty because Chandroutie was at a loss to provide for them. She stayed in the relationship despite the abuse, which included being burnt by her husband with lit cigarette butts. Years later, she finally mustered the courage to walk away from the relationship, and she divorced her husband.
On her departure, she took the only thing she was thankful the relationship had borne – her three children.

At that point, her life was simply nothing short of a mess. She had neither mother nor father, and her family didn’t care for her. She had no qualifications and no job. She was in a deep state of depression, and only through prayers and God’s love was she able to get over that phase of her life and move on.
Chandroutie decided it was time for her to get a job, so she started applying to different institutions for employment. Luck came soon after when she was employed at Banks DIH Limited as a cleaner. She worked there for just over three years before she got another job, where she met a man to whom she got married solely because she had nowhere for her and the children to live.
It was not until Chandroutie had secured a job as a cleaner at the Bank of Guyana that the fire was ignited within her to be the best version of herself. Chandroutie started taking Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC) classes to do one of the many things she was deprived of as a child: getting a sound education. She passed five of the six subjects she wrote, and was soon promoted from a cleaner to clerical staff at the Central Bank.
Now with a good job and the ability to provide food and clothing for her children, Chandroutie was able to give free rein to her thirst for higher education, and she applied to the University of Guyana (UG) and was accepted into the Public Management Diploma programme. After completing two years and meeting all the requirements for this programme, she was then accepted to pursue her Bachelor of Social Science degree in Public Management.
Chandroutie has elucidated that completing her four years at UG was not easy. During her final year of university, one day before one of her final exams, her husband of 14 years walked out on her without any explanation.
Chandroutie said his sudden exit reduced her to a complete wreck, but through the tears, she wrote her exams the next day. To her astonishment, her husband then served her with divorce papers a few days later. This broke her to the point where she had lost weight, and her discombobulated mental state could’ve gotten her fired, because she was unable to focus at work.
“Despite the support I was given by close friends and my children, deep within I refused to accept what was happening to my marriage. I was stubbornly holding on to my commitment, to the point where I lost 45lbs from the stress and agony. My biggest support during this time was my boss, who was understanding and helped me to cope like a soldier. I was not focusing, to the point where I could have easily lost my job and my sanity,” she related.
However, this resilient mother persevered, being determined to graduate. And she did! Chandroutie was able to successfully complete her degree, and will be graduating in February with a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.1 (credit).
Meanwhile, as she advanced herself academically, Chandroutie has been promoted several times on the job. From the position of Clerical Staff, she has been promoted to Clerk, then Senior Clerk. Today, she is the Assistant Principal (ag) at the Bank of Guyana.
Having confronted a rough childhood, growing up in poverty, dropping out of school, being forced into an abusive marriage, Chandroutie persevered through it all, knowing exactly what she wanted out of her life. And just by having that knowledge, it was enough to motivate her. Her experience and perseverance have inspired and motivated her three children, who are all currently pursuing their education at the tertiary level.
Through her story, Chandroutie wishes to encourage people that, once you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything.
Chandroutie’s story mimics the words of American Author Zig Ziglar, “It’s not where you start, but where you finish that counts.”