Features

A Ward for KIDS

John Ward, Principal of Kids Basic School in Clarendon shares information with his young students. - Norman Grindley

JOHN WARD, PRINCIPAL of the Keep Illiteracy Down Stream (KIDS) Basic School in May Pen, Clarendon faced ridicule when he left the police force and later the insurance sales world to give back to the younger generation from the classroom.

Ward said he joined the Mobile Reserve in 1979 and spent 19 years there but knew something was missing.

The next step was to work in insurance sales. "I sold insurance for more than two years for American Life head office in Mandeville," he said. This, however, did not fill the void. In fact, when business got bad, and he did not receive commission for one month, he decided it was time to try something else. "I never saw my worth there and I decided to start a little school back in December 1993," he said. "You see, my work was not evident there but I thought I would see the worth in the students."

But Ward had no school, no students and no money. However, a kind Reverend offered his church on Rectory Road, May Pen, Clarendon, as a temporary location. "That January morning it was 10:45 a.m. before we saw the first student," he said, "And when the mother brought that four-year-old boy, she asked me where the other students were and I thought about lying but I told her she was the first one."

Solitary student

For three weeks, Ward taught this solitary student but his mother soon decided that it was not working out and pulled him from the school. "I felt like giving up because former co-workers would come and tell me that I must be an idiot fi true," he said. "But I remembered how people laughed at Einstein and I said one day I would prove them wrong."

But soon, the word spread and people in the community, who worked in the area, decided to support Ward. "Then after the first year I realised that I had 18 students," he said. Over the few years the numbers rose to 50 and he got a new teacher, Christine Fagan.

However, after spending six years, the school had to move to their own location, a wooden structure on the other side of the road, where they stayed for four years then Hurricane Ivan took away their building and subsequently some of their students. They are now at another location nearby, a wooden structure that had once been a domino club.

With this string of disappointment and near misses, why does he continue to teach? "The children keep me motivated," he said. "Too many of our young men who drop out of school get into trouble and I am making sure I do my part and ensure that they get some kind of help."

Their motto: "Education by any means necessary," has turned out to be Ward's mantra.

However, things are not always rosy. "As they say a King does not have any honour in his country," Ward said. "Just like that there are a few people in the community who do not appreciate what I am doing. They don't understand what education means."

Courage

He takes courage from those who do support him from day to day. "The families are poor but there are some who will give you encouragement even if they don't have it all the time. Many times I do feel like packing up and going home but I know I just cannot do that." Ward attended Vere Technical High and has gone to numerous workshops over the past nine years to keep up to date with the latest information about the early childhood education.

"If you are becoming a teacher for the money, forget it," he says to the aspiring teachers, "It must be for the love of children."