QRC 2004

The centenary of the inauguration of the Main Building of Queen’s Royal College, the country’s oldest secondary school, will be celebrated on March 24, with plans well underway for a book containing several articles written by Old Boys [and one non Old Boy] to be published as part of a salute to the school. One of the prime movers of the book project is International Criminal Court Judge, Karl Hudson-Phillips. But even as the book is being prepared long delayed work on the restoration of the Main Building, including its celebrated Hall, which was allowed by several successive Governments to fall into disrepair, has begun. Unfortunately, the restoration will not be completed in time for the centenary celebrations. Queen’s Royal College itself was inaugurated on June 3, 1870, as a successor to the Queen’s Collegiate School, which was opened in 1859 and spent close on 11 years at the Prince’s Building, which also was allowed to slide in its final years into a state of disrepair.

QRC 2004, while it will touch on the history of the school which gave Trinidad and Tobago its current President, Professor Max Richards; its first Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams and its first Leader of the Opposition, Dr Rudranath Capildeo, will even as it provides Royalians and non Royalians with a record of the school, including vignettes of distinguished Masters and former students, also seek to point the way forward. At least three of the articles will attempt to deal with this crucial issue. One will examine the question of Curriculum Development, a matter of interest to educators and parents alike, as strategies are being developed on a Caribbean wide basis to make curricula more relevant to the personal and social needs of Caricom people.

Already Government having taken the decision to introduce CAPE to replace the Cambridge Advanced Level Examinations automatically created the need for the redesigning of the curriculum. CAPE’s replacing of the Cambridge A Levels examination will be done on a phased basis from next year. The second in the triad will be devoted to Policy and Structures, while the third will take an in depth look at Queen’s Royal College and the Community. Additionally, there will be articles on the Old Boys Association founded in 1934; the QRC Foundation, the QRC Committee, QRC Parent-Teacher Association and the School Board of Queen’s Royal.

The core group in charge of the overall project comprises in addition to Hudson-Phillips, Reginald Dumas, former Trinidad and Tobago diplomat and retired Head of the Public Service; Lloyd Best, economist and founder of Tapia, and Dr, Garth Alleyne, economist and former university lecturer. In 1970, another group of Old Boys published a book commemorating the 100th anniversary of Queen’s Royal - QRC 100, and one of the group involved in the planning of QRC 100 is today identified with QRC 2004 as a contributing writer. Regrettably, while the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Main Building will be commemorated by past and present Royalians, its showpiece, the College Hall, will remain closed as it represents a potential danger.