#BTColumn – Remembering “The Rawlites” of Barbados

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By Dr. Dan. C. Carter

As we in Barbados engage in social and political activities during this month of November, culminating on November 30, Republic Day, we always take this opportunity to revisit and reflect on our past achievements. As a successful developing state, there are several social institutions that can be identified, that have brought us to this state of maturity. Outstanding among these have been our governance, the church, the family and the school. In this article, I have singled out the school as a social institution that played an integral part in the growth and development of Barbadian society.

The educational system for enslaved blacks evolved during slavery and emancipation, from estate, evening, charity, Sunday and chapel schools, to more organized structures after 1846 and beyond. However, one of the underlying and persistent weaknesses of the education system at the time was the lack of a core of efficient teachers. This was caused by the absence of a broad-based secondary school system to provide teachers for the elementary/primary system. The latter system depended solely on persons recruited from among the brightest of students and tutored by headmasters and headmistresses who themselves were barely literate.

These early recruits to the teaching profession formed what was termed the ‘monitorial system’ and later the ‘pupil-teacher system’. However, subsequent education commissions severely criticized these forms of recruitment of teachers and consistently recommended the establishment of teacher training institutions. It was not until the first two decades of the twentieth century that a more professional approach was adopted to recruit teachers to the elementary/primary system.

An opportunity to improve the quality of teaching came when the Attorney General of Barbados, Mr. C. P. Clarke, drew to the attention of his colleagues in the House of Assembly that Inspectors of Schools reported to him that “where they have a trained teacher in charge of a school, the difference in discipline and the difference in general results is the greatest possible.” However, the void in professional training was filled when the Rev. A. H. Anstey commenced the training of teachers at Codrington College in October of 1912. The Inspector of Schools, the Rev. J. E. Nicholls and his assistant Mr. N. G. Greenhalgh supported Rev. Anstey in this initiative. The two-year course opened with ten male students. Of these ten students, one was Mr. L. T. Gay, who years later became an Inspector of Schools. The present Lawrence T. Gay Memorial School is named after him.

This training institution, which was named the Rawle Training Institute (RTI) after Dr. Rawle, a former Principal of Codrington College, was to be administered by a board comprising members of the Education Board and the Codrington College Board. Instruction was given by the College staff, a resident tutor and a number of visiting lecturers and instructors. The basic objective of the institution was to emphasize “the dignity of labour” by having students there perform all the domestic work and the necessity of “learning orderly methods for the preparation and delivery of the lesson.”

The curriculum consisted of English pronunciation and grammar, arithmetic and geometry, drawing and drill. Mr. Greenhalgh, an Inspector of Schools was an occasional lecturer in sociology. Through the curriculum the teachers, it was hoped, would “look to education as the means of bringing out what is best in their scholars, and making them successful members of the community” (Anstey). As a result of the establishment of this training facility for local teachers, the Education Board discontinued the practice of sending female student teachers to the Moravian Training College in Antigua. This practice had been ongoing since the early 1900s. Some success was attributed to this training when it was revealed that of the thirty females trained in Antigua, twenty-five were in the service, with nine as head teachers and sixteen as assistant teachers.

In 1914 six female teachers had joined the student roll at Codrington College. These women were housed in a hostel at Sealy Hall in St John. The following year the students moved into a more commodious building located on land at Society Hill. It was officially opened by the Governor, Sir Leslie Probyn. There was also the simultaneous opening of the model school on the same compound. Thus began a consistent and well-planned course in teacher training in Barbados for male and female teachers.

The curriculum at the model school included gardening, carpentry, clay modelling, plumbing and building construction. A Miss Burnett was in charge of the girls while the boys were superintended by a Mr. Futt. The first principal of the Hostel was an English lady, Miss Robinson. It was hoped that with the supply of a greater number of trained teachers that “the methods of teaching aimed at awakening the child’s intelligence and reasoning power will be more widely adopted than at present” (Education (Board) Report, 1930 1). This institution was to draw students from the Windward and Leeward Islands and British Guyana until about 1933 when the Trinidad Government Training College was established.

It was at the Rawle Training Institute (RTI) that attempts were made to train teachers in manual and vocational education. Consequently, in 1927, Mr. Rawle Parkinson, headmaster of Wesley Hall Primary School, was asked to conduct classes for teachers at the RTI. The situation occurred since the elementary schools were finding it difficult to recruit teachers with these requisite skills to pass on to the pupils. It was also in response to the growing number of schools that were participating each year in the manual and industrial programmes at the schools and which were becoming part of the curriculum. It was envisaged that a new training institute would embrace and further enhance the teaching of the manual and vocational curriculum.

During the life of the RTI three hundred and seven teachers had taken the course – two hundred and four from Barbados, forty-seven from the Leewards, twenty-six from British Guyana, twenty from Grenada and ten from St. Vincent. The largest intake at the institute was in the academic year 1931 – 1932 when twenty-two men and six women were in residence. Of credit to the RTI was the fact that six of the trained teachers went on to successfully gain their Bachelor of Arts Degree from Codrington, two their Bachelor of Arts Degree from London University and three the A.C.P. Of significance also was the fact that two of the RTI graduates, L.T. Gay and Charles F. Broome became inspectors of schools.

These RTI graduates, who became known as “Rawlites”, bore the name with pride and honour.

Dr. Dan. C. Carter, educational historian and author.