Agnes Rebecca Jones, former President of the Guyana Women’s Artists’ Association, Chairperson of the Guyana Book Foundation, and Administrator of the Burrowes School of Art, died on November 30, aged 87.
Agnes Jones always attributed her affection for education to having grown up in a house of books and journals. Her father was a headmaster who had a large library and who subscribed to The Teachers’ World and The Schoolmistress − which she made it her duty to read before he took them away to share with his staff. She liked what she saw and was excited by the prospect of teaching.
Occupational opportunities for young women in those days were limited and, as if to reinforce her own predilections, her automatic choice of a job when she left high school was to spend a year as a pupil teacher. She entered the Government Training College for teachers in 1941, gaining first place at the final exam and graduating with the Class 1 Trained Teachers’ Certificate in 1943.
She felt lucky to have been assigned to the Broad Street Government School. This school had been established by the state as a model or ‘practising school’ that exposed new teachers to critical evaluation by their tutors and peers.
Set amidst relatively commodious grounds where vegetables flourished, its assets and resources were more appropriate to teaching methodology than the penny-pinching, denominational primary schools, usually located in churchyards, which were more common at that time. She was appointed specialist art teacher for standards one to six, for twelve years.
Gaining a scholarship in 1955, she attended an advanc-ed course of study in the education of young children at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom. Her individual area of study was “Creative activity in elementary education, with recommendations for improvement of education in British Guiana.”
At the end of the course, she remained in the UK to study at the University of Birmingham for the Diploma in the Psychology of Childhood. Continuing her interest in childhood education, the topic of her dissertation was “An investigation based on the original work of Jean Piaget into children’s concepts of provoked correspondence with the equivalence of corresponding sets.”
Later, she returned to the UK to study at the University of Leicester at which she was awarded the Master of Education degree. She also secured a fellowship from the USA Department of Health, Education and Welfare, spending one term at the Oregon State University and visiting various universities and curriculum research centres in Wisconsin, Michigan and Washington, DC.
After teaching briefly at Broad Street Government School and the Government Training College, she transferred to the Department of Education, now called the Ministry of Education. She held a raft of appointments − Assistant Education Officer for what was then the county of Essequibo; Education Officer (Child Education); Education Officer (Per-sonnel); Senior Education Officer (Primary); Supervi-sor, In-service Teachers’ Training Programme; Co-ordinator, Curriculum Development Programme; and Co-ordinator, Nursery Education Programme. She also lectured in the Faculty of Education, University of Guyana for about ten years.
Agnes Jones was a member of the group of educators led by Mrs Olga Bone, Ms Mavis Pollard and Sr Hazel Campayne who recognised how rapidly the standards of literacy were sliding in the country. Together with other volunteer tutors, they began holding free remedial classes in English and Mathematics for students in and around Georgetown.
This was the start of Education Renewal. In the early 1990s, Education Renewal was tasked with the responsibility of distributing shipments of books from the Canadian Organisation for Development through Edu-cation. Hence, Education Renewal can be regarded as the forerunner of the Guyana Book Foundation, established in 1990 as a not-for-profit NGO in partnership with CODE.
Next to teaching, Agnes Jones loved art. She attended the Working People’s Art Class directed by Edward Burrowes in 1953-55, and would later become administrator of the Burrowes School of Art. Her own work was exhibited with the Guyanese Art Group in 1946 and 1951; with the Working People’s Art Class in 1955; and with the special national exhibition of art held for the visit of Queen Elizabeth in 1966.
As with many other educated women of her generation who turned to teaching, she remained a spinster and devoted her energy to social, religious and educational service. She served as a member of the Caribbean Examinations Council; founding member and chairperson of the Guyana Book Foundation; founding member and former secretary of the Guyana Association for Childhood Education; president of the Guyana Women’s Artists Association; member of the National Council of the Guyana Girl Guides Asso-ciation; and member of the board of governors of the May Rodrigues Vocational Centre of the YWCA. She was appointed a member of the management committee of the National Gallery in 1993.
A staunch Anglican, she was a lay member of the Diocesan Council of the Anglican Church; people’s warden of the vestry, and vice-president of the Dorcas Society, of St James-the-Less Church, Kitty.
Agnes Rebecca Jones was born on October 1, 1921 in Georgetown. She attended St Mary-ye-Virgin Anglican School in Beterverwagting Village on the East Coast, Demerara.
Her family then moved back to Georgetown where she attended the Freeburg and St Philip’s Anglican Schools until 1933, when she went on to the Bishop’s High School. There, apart from passing her school certificate examinations, she served as a prefect and girl guide, later becoming lieutenant, then captain of the school company.
She won the school’s Hilda Seeraj Medal in 1936 for her all round performance.
Agnes Jones was awarded the national honour of Golden Arrow of Achieve-ment for her service to education in 1992.
