A tribute to the late Raj Mangal, MS (BA,Wholesale Jerseys China, Dip Ed)By Leon SuseranIf you are or were a teacher, chances are, you would have made an indelible impression on lives. A teacher has that power; and the late Raj Mangal harnessed that power and used it for the benefit of the thing he loved and cherished the most, education. The affairs of education in Guyana were right next to his heart.In fact, it is not ironic at all that Mr Mangal lived just a stone’s throw from the Department of Education office in New Amsterdam. More intriguingly, he passed from this world, during a month put aside to celebrate education and just a few days short of another World Teachers’ Day. Call it what you may, but all of that just cannot be coincidence.Mr Mangal presenting certificate to L. Suseran during CPCE's convocation in 2006. He attended every single graduation whenever his teachers graduated, no matter how late they had to travel back to BerbiceI was lucky to interview this great man in 2007.Early LifeRajkishore Mangal was born on June 28, 1941 at Number 19 Village, on the East Coast of Berbice, Guyana. He attended the then Bohemia Canadian Missionary Primary School (now Bohemia Primary) where he performed exceptionally well by achieving two accelerated promotions.This meant that he completed Second and Third Standards in one year; and he finished Fifth and Sixth Standards in one year.He was one of only two students from the school passing the Primary School Leaving Certificate Examination in 1954.As a village primary school lad, Raj enjoyed assisting the family in the rice fields especially on weekends and on school holidays as well. He said he was good at catching fish, cutting and fetching wood and grass, milking cows, and ‘shooting birds’ with “slingshots”.Working in the rice fields was also much fun for him and he, nowadays, would regale whoever would listen? to him with stories of alligators, huge snakes, catching hassar (a kind of armoured fish) off their nests with bare hands and searching for ‘monkey apples’ in “dark jungles”.He continued this “country boy” life during his high school years also.Mr Mangal said that at that time, he heard his father and the head teacher speak of ‘high- school’.He understood that such a school was to be formed in the town of New Amsterdam, seven miles away from the village and to attend same; his parents had to find money to pay school “fees”.He also had to acquire a bicycle. His parents could not afford one.The Berbice Educational Institute (BEI)- the private high school in New Amsterdam– his father was told by the primary head teacher, was having an Entrance Examination for hundreds of high schoolers. The four top performers would be given scholarships which meant free high school education for five years and financial assistance to purchase textbooks.Mr Mangal said that his father told him, “Son, you want to go to high school? Then here is your chance!” He was one of the four scholarship winners!One of his uncles had an old bicycle. He started to attend BEI in August 1954. He rode his bicycle the 14-mile distance every school day for five years. He faced the challenge of the town’s “bright students”; wild cane whipping (corporal punishment) if he was not the top performer in subjects such as: Latin, Christian Religious Knowledge (he is a Hindu) and Civics. Because he was a “scholarship boy”Mr and Mrs Mangal perform sacred rituals during a special Hawaan ceremony at their home in June this yearhaving his tuition fees “paid by the school”, he was told he had to always be the “top boy”.But Mr Mangal said he enjoyed his days at BEI. He was prefect, head prefect, President of the “Library and Debating Society” and was responsible for publishing the school’s weekly ‘news sheets’, which was sold for a penny each.Mr Mangal graduated from high school in 1959; he was the top graduating student and was offered a scholarship by the school to attend Queen’s College in Georgetown and write the GCE (Advanced Level) Examinations after two years.But to the dismay of his high school principal, he did not accept the scholarship. He opted instead for a teaching job at the school, thus earning money to fund the high school education of two of his brothers who in 1959 had just finished primary school. POST- HIGH SCHOOL YEARSThe following year, Mr Mangal wrote the Advanced Level Examination, studying on his own using self-tuition correspondence courses bought from England.As a high school teacher, Mr Mangal taught Geography, History,wholesale nfl jerseys, French, Latin, Spanish, Economics and Mathematics.During the years 1966-1970, he attended the University of Guyana as an evening student. During the day he taught at a city high school. He graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in Geography. His minor was in Spanish.Later, he acquired the Post-