Twenty five years ago Hannah Demming became Principal of Bishop's Centenary College (St Cecilia's) at 17 Stanmore Avenue, now located at No 28/30 Roberts Street in Woodbrook. The private Anglican Secondary School for youngsters who had not passed the dreaded Common Entrance Examination was just four years old at the time, and had already had two principals, the late Ollie Stanford, and Glynne Gordon.
On July 3rd, Bishop Clive Abdulah was celebrant at a Valedictory Service at All Saints Anglican Church for the retiring principal. A teacher for fifty years, Hannah, a former student of Bishop Anstey High School, did her teacher training at Naparima Training College in San Fernando, and took up her first teaching assignment at Naparima Girls High School, as mathematics mistress. One of her students, she proudly boasts, was former first lady Zalayhar Hassanali "she was Zalayhar Mohammed then."
After two short years, Hannah requested to be sent into the primary school system. "I wanted to get experience with the rank and file, and was sent to Penal and Debe from where I went to England in 1955 and lived there until 1975."
Hannah's sojourn in England came when her late husband, Oliver, a fast bowler for the Trinidad & Tobago National Cricket Team went to play professional cricket in the Lancashire League. In the meantime, Hannah had already further qualified herself through distance learning with the Associate of College of Preceptors, London, so on her arrival in England, she was immediately snapped up by the Lancashire Education Authority and taught mathematics, English, and Religious Education which is compulsory in England, at two schools. However, this no-nonsense woman decided that the English syllabus which she used for one year was not suitable for a multi-cultural school, wrote her own syllabus which was accepted by the principal "and the following year I was invited to join a committee of teachers to rewrite the whole syllabus for the entire country which I gladly did."
But Hannah was otherwise busily engaged in England, as she had travelled with three of her four children, Robert, Richard and Rena, the fourth Ross was born in England, who are today all married and provided her with nine grandchildren. "Between us we have more than 130 years of blissful marriages, until my husband died on August 20, 1999, after a short illness which shocked everybody. But we had had an absolutely wonderful 50th anniversary celebration in England with the whole family the year before."
She was the President of the Business & Professional Women's Club in England; secretary of the Lancashire Liaison Committee which liaised between the host committee and immigrants; and chairman of the Community Relations Committee of Leyland and Preston, the purpose of which was to bridge the gap between migrants and the host community.
Not satisifed with all that activity, Hannah went back to study for an advanced diploma in Education with a special study on children under social handicap at the University of Lancaster. And then in 1975 Oliver took a decision to come back to Trinidad: "He was going to open a shoe factory for Charles Horrell's shoes in Trincity." Hannah retired but in no time was bored "so I sought openings in Trinidad and found the Centenary College. I taught Social Studies and eventually English Language, Literature and Caribbean History for the newly established CXC Exams which started in 1978."
Glynne introduced Hannah to the Caribbean Examinations Council "because she thought I would make a good CXC examiner and I am now an examiner for twenty years. In the early days we used to write questions, prepare multiply choice but now I just mark and am supervisor of a group of markers, could be either Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica or Trinidad, in English Language."
Practical and down-to-earth, Hannah explained her departure for England for three months with her three children who still live there and grandchildren as "I am getting out of the way and have handed over the school to Yvonne Pinder, a former principal of Diego Martin Government Primary School. In my mind the school will be in very good hands and I am happy to know we have found someone without there being any break, you call it a "seamless transition."
It is a baton notched with innovations which has been passed to Pinder. "With the Ministry of Education's "Universal Secondary Education" our intake of government assigned students from the 14 plus started in 1992- children who had completed three years in junior secs- moved to include 75 Form One students from the 2000 Common Entrance examination." To Hannah's way of thinking "the USE means at the end of secondary which is after primary and this need not be purely academic so long as suitable curricula can be implemented, and not just talked about, for the non academic students I think it is a good thing. I want to make it quite clear that I do not think CXC is necessarily the only route. At Bishop's Centenary, for example, we have a Business Centre for the 14 plus students and offer them academics, business practicals, food and nutrition, clothing and textile and art and craft. The mandate given to their teachers in the practical department is make sure that they have a skill, see that those who opt for these courses and many do, leave here with a skill."
A past president of the Soroptimist Club of Port of Spain and also of the National Association of Soroptimist Clubs, Hannah railroaded her club into assisting the school since 1992 with a nutrition support programme, which includes not only provision of lunches but provision of management akills in devising menus and preparation of the food. "The girls are a part of the preparation of the menu, budgeting, purchasing, preparation and serving of the food on proper ware plates with good cutlery, no plastic here, and those girls who are called "The Soroptimist's Girls", believe it or not, build self esteem out of that."
"I took the Soroptimists by their throats and they have also piloted a Homework Centre whereby other schools in the area come to do homework for the past three years, supervised by our teachers." And finally, says this excellent educator "if I had to start all over again I would not take any other job but teaching, I really love it, I think it is one way to serve the young people of the country. Teaching is a vocation" and is sure that her going will not be an unfillable hole "because Mrs Pinder is going to fill this hole beautifully."