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Mauritius: Harry Kissoon Booluck, general manager of Central Water Authority - "A Good Teacher Creates an Interest for Learning in Students"
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L'Express (Port Louis)
11 March 2008
Posted to the web 11 March 2008
Vanessen Tirvassen
Port Louis
"I was born and raised in Palma. Therefore, I went to Palma Church of England Aided School
. In those days, the infrastructure in primary schools was far from satisfactory, especially in that school. I still remember that the roof was made of sheet metal, the yard was not asphalted and there were lots of wooded waste lands beside the school. Moreover, classes were not separated. In fact, a myriad of classes and even some offices, such as the head teacher's office, were all found in a huge hall.
Regarding the teachers, the first one who inevitably comes to my mind is one who marked all my class-mates and myself in a negative way. This teacher (whom I would not like to name) was a very harsh-looking guy who liked to hit all his pupils. He would walk around the class with a whip or a stick. It goes without saying that he would not hesitate to use either of them on the slightest excuse. It was so terrifying that some students had no other choice than to stay at home instead of coming to school. As far as I was concerned, although I had been hit by that teacher I still continued to come to school normally despite being dominated by a strong feeling of fear.
Afterwards, I had another teacher named Jim Ramdonee, when I was doing Standard VI. He was the complete opposite of the former teacher I just spoke about. While the former teacher would discourage the students from learning, the latter (Jim) would attract the students. He would act as an magnet between students and the learning itself. Furthermore, what I can say from a personal point of view is that, after having been teaching for around 22 years, a good teacher is one who knows how to create an interest for learning in students.
In addition to this, he should be able to earn respect from them, for example by dressing properly with a tie and so on. Jim Ramdonee was exactly this kind of teacher. He was so polite and so caring that we would never be scared of asking him anything. He would welcome questions and answer them. He would not even mind explaining the same thing several times just to make sure the students had understood. I also recall Rex Donat, the former head of the Anglican Church. He was our history teacher. He was another one who made us really interested in the subject.
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Another tremendous teacher was Mr Oxenham, a chemistry teacher at New Eton College. He had a very interesting approach to the subject. I was so fond of his explanations and so fazed in front of the way he was teaching that I simply fell in love with the subject. More importantly, he made us feel at ease in his class. When I think about it properly, I believe Jim Ramdonee was my best teacher. He was the teacher every student would dream of having. He was one of those who knew how to improve the image of the teaching profession."
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