Pull Quote: “I taught children over the length and breadth of New Amsterdam. I am thankful that I did not only give them education, I also taught them discipline, so you find those children are not rowdy like some of those today.”
By Leon Suseran | Kaieteur News
Sybil Melvennia Watson-Bollers is a tough lady from inside out. We all know that it is not easy to leave your home and family to go and work in the interior. But because her husband was called to serve her country and more particularly the children of Guyana, in a far-out place in the Pakaraimas, Sybil eagerly chose to accompany him on the journey, taking her skills as a nursery school teacher with her and travelling from the “known into the unknown”.
This was the crowning moment in her life, since, for the next five years, she would interact and mingle with Guyana’s Indigenous people from that area, and become one with them in every way. But she was also scared, because they were hearing lots of strange stories about the place. “But by God’s help, we mastered it because the Amerindians were very friendly people. ”
If you’re talking about love and service to little children in Guyana, then you cannot leave out Sybil Bollers. If you discuss the history and expansion of nursery education in Regions 5 and 6, then you have to mention her name, for the love she had for the nursery sector propelled her to establish two schools that were eventually adopted by the then government.
She was born on October 14, 1928, at D’Edward Village, West Coast Berbice, to Tilly Henrietta and Reginald Watson. She had one sibling, Elaine. Her parents were hard-working. Her mother had a love for kitchen gardening and her father was a sugar/pump boiler, and was employed with the West Indies Sugar Factory. He worked for 6 months and then returned home and so on.
Sybil attended Rosignol Government Primary School and she remembers her headmaster, Mr Joe Henry as being “a very strict man”. After passing gardening, sewing and school- leaving exams with “high marks”, she was asked to go to Georgetown for further training, but the protective father that she had, stressed that “girls must be kept at home”.
Courting a young man, Patrick Kingston (now deceased), in those days at 20 left her heartbroken and with a daughter “whom she loved dearly”. It was not the father’s fault, but his family. She was on the road to marriage, since the two of them had engaged. “I got hurt after 3 years… and then later Mr Bollers came into my life. I got scared. I said I don’t want to be with anybody, so I mostly used to cling to church work.”
She was Sunday School Supervisor for Hanover Congregational Church at D’Edward.
“I was an all- rounder. We used to go around evangelizing and praying for people. I enjoyed it a lot”, she noted. She enjoyed church work so much that she thought she would never have need for another partner in her life.
“I thought I was not going to accept anyone again into my life”, she reminisced.
With great encouragement from parents and a need for the young to be educated, young Sybil opened a kindergarten school in 1955. The school, with over 65 children, was being conducted at the D’Edward Neighbourhood Democratic Council office.
“I had loved children. I used to get the neighbours’ children and they used to come around me. and really, I wanted to teach, but after I passed the exam and was to go to Georgetown, my Daddy said he was not sending girl children further than home, so I had to do what my parents said. But I was still determined, because the neighbours around saw I loved children and they encouraged me to open the schools,” she reflected. Her niece assisted her with the children.
Three years later, Winston Bollers entered her life.
“He swept me off my feet and we were married on my 31st birthday, October 14, 1959.”
Their union produced five children: Patrick, Florizella, Celeste, Claire and Patricia.
Shortly after that, he was transferred to New Amsterdam Primary. She left West Berbice and the school in the hands of her niece to carry on and continued life in East Berbice. Wanting to tend to the needs of the young in New Amsterdam, Mrs Bollers then opened another kindergarten school, this time in Smythfield.
“Seeing I still loved children, I went and opened a school. The Lutheran church had a building and they gave it to me.”
“She returned to the PM and gave her report, following which he then took over all the infant schools and renamed them “nursery schools” – the term ‘nursery’ being used for the first time in Guyana’s education system.”
“After he saw we had this kindergarten school, he wanted it to be of a certain standard. We were asked to name the school after a flower you know, because of the small children…and seeing I had loved roses, I named my school Red Rose Nursery School.” She subsequently underwent Nursery teacher training.
“We were placed on the government payroll, receiving $132 each month. We also had to do training every Saturday at Rose Hall’s St Patrick School by special teachers and supervisors, making suitable aids and learning teaching skills,” she recounted.
Little did she know then that the life of her and her family would change. She and her husband had to travel to Monkey Mountain, in the Pakaraimas, to teach. They would leave two of their children behind, since they were in nursing and attending high school.
“He had to be headmaster of Monkey Mountain Government School in 1970,” she said. “He had to take his family with him, so there, I had to take a transfer and go with three of my children. The family had to divide.”
This was one of the most exciting periods in her life. “The Dakota and Caribu were the names of the planes we travelled with.”
In the interior they interacted closely with Amerindians from the Patamona tribe. She passionately rebuffed statements by some persons today who try to downplay education received by Amerindian children in the 1970s and during those times, by stating resolutely that those children were being educated, and properly too.
“They had schools in Mahdia, Kato, and teachers. We used to pack that plane and every time you met an area, teachers would be dropped off to teach those same Amerindian children. So how is it that people are saying it is only now the Amerindian children are getting education. That is not true!”
“So, you see, education was given to the Amerindians long before now. But you know, I don’t know in politics why they like to mix things.”
Sybil gained a wealth of experience in the interior areas that she would always remember. She recalled seeing large families going to catch fish, as well as making piwari, “and when they go, they catch the fish and dried them, so whenever they come back, they come back with one set of dried fish for them to use.”
She sadly recalled that one of her students in one family never returned after an outing to hunt fish.
“Overall, it was a wonderful experience. You go from the known to the unknown. They (the children) were speaking their own language, so we had to teach them English,” she noted.
During the interview, she struggled humorously to remember a few Amerindian words, but could only remember that ‘Panna’ means ‘water’.
Sybil said that her family didn’t fear anything because they lived right next to the police station. The schools and teachers’ houses were also close to each other.
They left Monkey Mountain in 1976 and returned to New Amsterdam. Interestingly, they did not take any pictures of their stay in the interior.
“It was a challenging and enjoyable time at St Mary’s Nursery. It was the largest school in Berbice with over 250 pupils, with 11 teachers,” she reflected. There she worked with the likes of Donna Sinclair, Claville Francis, Jewel Warde, and Izella Mc Calmon.
She enjoyed those days since she managed her teachers well.
Mrs Bollers shaped the lives of young children for 35 years, and for her, it is a joy to be stopped on the road by her former students, who are grown men and women today.
“I taught children over the length and breadth of New Amsterdam. I am thankful that I did not only give them education, I also taught them discipline, so you find those children are not rowdy like some of those today. They were nourished with God’s blessings, because I used to have singing hymns and we used to tell them religious stories—things to mould them to something good,” she proudly asserted.
“And I am proud, you know why? Today they turned out to be something good. You don’t want money from them, but your heart has reached out and you have done your part, with the help of God.”
The veteran educator blamed the growing indiscipline among youths in school today on the absence of religions education in the school system.
“That was a forbearance to help the children, to motivate them to be good students, but since they took them away, that is why they going into the cocaine, the sex and all kinds of lawless behaviour in school today,” she opined.
“We did not have that. Our days… we went to school… girls and boys never used to study those kinds of things. Because of this religious knowledge that they took out from the school, it has given the schools a serious decline… that is why the young people are so barbarous and cursing. We just have to continue to pray for Guyana.”
“Some of these children come from troubled homes… they don’t know L-O-V-E. And so, when they go in school and teachers start battering them, they only get worse.”
She recalled an incident at St Theresa’s Primary – which was next-door to St Mary’s – when she extended a loving arm to a “bad” pupil. She told him she loved him.
“I got this boy and patted him up like he was my own, and believe it or not, the teachers told me this boy was a changed pupil afterwards. It was because he had lost the love…the home wasn’t giving him any and the school teachers were treating him bad, and so, he became hard. Teachers have got to be careful.”
Mrs. Bollers’ dream before she leaves this world is to return once more to the Pakaraimas, “even if it is to spend two more days, because I loved it, I loved the place very much. Those were touching experiences that I would never forget and those people (the Amerindians) are just wonderful.”
These days she enjoys the company of her 10 grandchildren and 6 great-grands, and despite several minor arthritic bouts, she loves singing and remains enthused by spiritual worship. Planning to assist the R.C. Church of the Ascension’s choir next year and teaching the Sunday school, are on her priority list.
“Thanks to God for keeping me all these years of my life. I am Catholic and proud of it”, she noted. Her daughter, Florizella, accompanies her to Mass every Sunday.
Our ‘Special Person’ received an award from the Department of Education in New Amsterdam in 1994 for outstanding and dedicated service to the education system.