Canada-based resident, Julius Nathoo recently visited the JC Chandisingh Secondary School at Rose Hall, Corentyne to assess needs and to deliver a message of “hope and encouragement” from the alumni in the diaspora.
He said that apart from planning to assist the school financially and with equipment and other resources, the alumni would be sponsoring an essay competition on the topic, “How has Independence helped in the development of our country?”
Teacher of the school, Kashwar Ramnauth told this newspaper that the competition is opened to fourth form students who are expected to express their ideas in about 500 words. Successful students would be rewarded with special prizes. Ramnauth also said that a reunion and fund-raiser for the school would be held on August 9.
At a small ceremony held in his honour, teachers and students welcomed Nathoo who visited along with his wife, Selina Nathoo, a retired teacher in Canada and Eva Rawana-Scott, both former students of JC Chandisingh.
Nathoo informed the students that the choices they made in life would determine what they would become. He told them that they need to focus on what was before them and that when they would have finished school they would build on that and become better citizens.
He also reminded them of the school’s motto: Ter Ardua Ad Astra [through hard work to the stars] and said that apart from hard work they would also excel through the grace of God.
He told the students that he started his career at the JC Chandisingh and then moved on to set up the Saraswat High School on West Demerara where he taught up to 1970. He migrated to Canada and continued teaching until he moved on to do his Masters at a university in England. He later returned to Canada where he practised as a barrister and then as a judge until 2007. During a visit in 1996 he was also admitted to the bar in Guyana.
