Barataria teacher inspires young sportsmen

A Physical Education teacher at the Barataria Junior Secondary, this week’s hero is Ishmael St Bryce, a well-rounded individual who also provides pastoral care and inspiration to his young charges. He is also President of the Basketball Association of TT. Ishmael attributed his upbringing in a Seven-Day Adventist family as the catalyst responsible for his attraction to the teaching profession, as it left him with a deep rooted desire to exert some positive influence on his fellowmen.

While the perception held by many that children of junior secondary schools are difficult to teach and control, St Bryce admitted “Yes, students at these schools do present both specific and unique challenges.” However he added, “Teaching is a challenging but rewarding vocation on the hold, but I would not say teaching at a junior secondary is difficult. “My observation has led me to conclude that the teacher training has been slightly deficient in terms of preparing teachers to adequately handle the challenges of teaching students at these schools,” Ishmael stated. As a consequence, admitted St Bryce, “the task is a little great for some of the practitioners,” but he is of the belief that “we are getting it right with improvements to come.”

Having served as President of the TT Schools’ Basketball Association for the last two years, in addition to being on the Board of Directors of the recently reconstituted National Basketball Federation of TT, Ishmael revealed he was keenly interested in football refereeing. His impressive list of titles also includes Chairman of the East Zone Football Referees Association for the past six years; and was last week re-elected as Third Vice President of the TT Football Referees Association at the national level. Asked to rank sports in the development of an individual, Ishmael said while government’s Vision 2020 plan was “noble,” it would take some effort in achieving.

Citing other developed nations’ affinity with sports and how it influences the lives of their citizens, St Bryce strongly suggested “a move in that direction could impact on TT and the education system by placing importance on physical education at the primary level. “Physical Education and Sport must be of primary importance if we are to achieve this goal,” of First World status, concluded St Bryce. The above information was researched by the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association.