CORENTYNE HIGH SCHOOL'S HISTORY AND THE PURSUIT OF EGO [RENAMED CHANDISINGH HIGH SCHOOL  AT ROSE HALL TOWN/PORT MOURANT]

Dear Editor,

A few months before the August 2008 reunion of my alma mater, Corentyne High School, held in Queens, New York, I received a phone call from the person overseeing the reunion and the school’s alumni web site. He told me that, considering my past invaluable literary contributions to the web site, he felt I fit the bill to write an article on the history of the school and J.C. Chandisingh, its principal.
He wanted me to do the piece in time for inclusion on the website and the reunion brochure to be handed out on the night of the reunion. Needless to say, I felt flattered to be considered for what I considered an important assignment, involving an institution for which I’ve always held the highest regard during and after my five-year tenure there. I thanked the caller for his obvious confidence in me, and requested at least two months so I could do the requisite research before bringing the article to fruition.

In the ensuing weeks, I delved deeply into the assignment, gathering as much relevant data as possible, the bulk of it from Hardutt Chandisingh, the last surviving son of the (late) principal. Hardutt, then a resident of Hertfordshire, England, provided a rich trove of information going back to the time, in 1938, when the school was established by the Canadian Mission, which had recognized and deplored the paucity of institutions of secondary education in the Corentyne.

After weeks of diligent work and research, I finally put the finishing touches to the article, of around 2000 words, and emailed it to the administrator. In response, after a few additional weeks, he thanked me, adding that his older brother thought I “write well.” While he relayed that piece of information to me from his brother (for whom, incidentally, I’ve always had high regard from the days he taught me at CHS), it did not escape my attention that he expressed no opinion on the article itself.
After all, he was the one to commission me to write the piece and would have been expected to be the first to comment – if at least to say it was what he had in mind. When he instead chose to tell me how his brother ‘felt,’ my skullduggery-detection antennae went into full activation. As a result, I came to the conclusion that his “message” to me from his brother was an attempt to butter me up – for some hidden purpose.
Come the night of the reunion, the hall was packed. I arrived there with my wife and was handed the brochure commemorating the event. The full text of my article, the longest, was included and occupied two full pages. However, what I found curiously bizarre was the fact that page two appeared before page one – at first sight, a glaring flub, in effect likely to cause confusion to the reader.

An attendee from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, brought it to the attention of the administrator, who attributed it to error or poor proof-reading by the committee member in charge of the publication. The Canadian accused the committee of sabotage. It so happened that I knew well the committee member overseeing the brochure and it’s printing. In fact, I knew him as a very organized and neat person, one who was unlikely to miss such a glaringly obvious foul-up.
Was it really sabotage? Hard to say for certain and by whom. Though it must be noted that contributions to the brochure by both the administrator and the supposedly incompetent proof-reader appeared unblemished. What struck me as quite odd, however, was that the lead article in the brochure was on the same subject as the one commissioned for me to do; and it was written by the administrator’s brother, the supposed source of the “write well” comment. I immediately felt vindicated: It confirmed my suspicion that the administrator was trying to butter me up with that comment, knowing I would feel slighted at his brother’s writing on the same subject – obviously at his bidding.

To add insult to injury, the elder brother’s article contained data that were at stark variance from mine, including the date J.C. Chandisingh became principal of the school – it was, as confirmed by Hardutt Chandisingh- the late 1940s and not 1938, when the school was established. (Hardutt – may he RIP was livid when I pointed out the discrepancy.
After all, he stressed, he knew personally the school’s first principal, Mr. Firth, a Canadian, who held the post until the Canadian Mission determined the time was ripe for handing it over to a Guyanese; and such time was in the late 1940s after J.C. Chandisingh had worked for some years in a secretarial capacity under Firth.)

It seems clear that the organizer of the reunion (and administrator of the website) exhibited questionable judgment, not to mention favoritism towards a family member – all having to do with an educational institution over which no alumnus should have carte blanche control. Besides, if there is a name that comes close to being synonymous with Corentyne High School, it is Chandisingh (as in J.C. Chandisingh) – none other! And I say so in spite of all the much-publicized efforts (particularly on the web site), on the administrator’s part, to raise funds for the school’s upkeep and scholarships to outstanding students. I posit that such efforts involve more of a craving for ego embellishment as opposed to love of the school (Incidentally, my article, which had appeared on the website since 2008, was recently removed – and not by me!)

As a graduate of this prestigious educational institution, I deplore the continuing usurping of its name by one graduate to satisfy selfish, egotistic motivations, including the pursuit of elevation of a family name at the expense of the more deserving Chandisingh name. As plans are underway for an August 2017 reunion (in Guyana), I think it’s about time other graduates, including the many, sycophantic ones seemingly in thrall of the usurper, come to their senses and wrest control of the web site and reunion programs from one person. Instead, control should come under a committee of graduates with an unselfish agenda, including keeping the school’s name and reputation on the pedestal it richly deserves.
Abel Peters