By Mohanlall Suelall
Someone once said that failure is not a permanent experience and that one should rise above it and choose to be better than they were since changing and growing are what make you win. Perhaps it was that very saying and his refusal to accept that failure was there to stay, that drove Sir Raghunauth Doodnauth to the pinnacle of success today.
Coming from a single-parent home where household chores coupled with little or no access to financial resources meant limited studying time for Sir Raghunauth. It was all of those factors that caused him to fail his Common Entrance and lose his shot at attending a secondary school where he could have excelled.
However, with determination and hard work, he was able to live his dream of becoming a trained secondary school teacher and today he serves as the Deputy Head Master of the Anna Regina Multilateral School.
Sir Ragu, as he is popularly known to his students, colleagues and friends, said that his life as a poor kid coming from a single-parent home where mommy was the only breadwinner gave him the opportunity to experience what is real poverty. Those experiences are what motivated him to educate himself so as to eradicate poverty from his life forever.
Sir Ragu, after failing his Common Entrance Examination, was given a place at the Anna Regina Community High School, now Cotton Field Secondary, where he was given a second chance to fulfil his dream. It was with the help and guidance of his Head Master, Sir Ruport Osborne, teachers like Sir Kumar Narine and Miss Banwattie Gocool, who later became his mentors, who gave him the necessary support which motivated him and built his confidence after which he started to show his full potential.
His commitment and determination were so overwhelming that he moved from the very bottom to where he began to top his class, consistently. When it came to his graduation after completing his secondary education, Sir Ragu was adjudged the best graduating student of the class of 1989 at the Anna Regina Community High School.
Sir Ragu, after leaving school, was given a chance to teach at the said school after which he went to the Cyril Potter College of Education, Turkeyen Campus, from 1992 to 1994 and qualified himself as a trained mathematics teacher. After completing CPCE, he returned to Anna Regina Community High, now Anna Regina Secondary, and was placed as the acting Head of the Business Department.
In 2012 he attended the University of Guyana and in 2016 where he read for a Degree in Education Administration-Secondary.
Sir Ragu said that his passion is to see that all students get a sound and equal education so as to empower them to be better equipped with the necessary tools to face the many challenges in life.
Sir Ragu said that he was once called the dunce boy by his friends because he was attending the Anna Regina Community High School which was branded by the Anna Regina Multilateral students then as the dunce school. But the proud teacher said that he is happy to see that the same “dunce” school produced many great students who later became doctors, lawyers, and teachers etc and as a testimony, he is now the Deputy Head Master of the Anna Regina Multilateral Secondary School, the same school which the students who were laughing at him attended.
His advice to all teachers is to give their best to their students because as teachers you can help to make a change in their lives and to all students, see education as a tool to empower you to become the person you wanted to be and to follow your career.
“While money can do great things, those who are not fortunate enough can also become great by putting education first and one day you too will be able to live a comfortable life. To all teachers, may this day give us the opportunity to sit back and reflect on our past achievements and failures and to set new goals for we are the moulder of this nation and what we give will one day return to us. Happy Teachers Day to all teachers.”
