Long-Serving Educator Honoured

For more than four decades, Ann-Marie Franklyn Brown has dedicated her life to helping children learn, grow and succeed.

On Wednesday (July 1), that unwavering commitment was recognised when she received the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Golden Torch Award for 43 years of service.

For Mrs. Franklyn Brown, however, the journey into education was never part of her original plan.

“From an early age I thought I wanted to be a nurse,” she recalled in an interview with JIS News, adding that her mother saw her charting a different path.

When Mrs. Franklyn Brown insisted nursing was her passion, her mother told her she was meant to teach because she was afraid of blood.

Looking back, the educator now believes the signs had always been there.

She recalled teaching Sabbath School lessons to adults while still very young and even pretending to teach flowers and empty chairs as a child.

Fresh out of high school, Mrs. Franklyn Brown was still uncertain about her future when a visit to the library with her friend changed everything.

She came across an advertisement from Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College seeking applicants for teacher training.

“I applied, I got through, she did not. I was so sad, but anyway I said all right, I’m gonna just pursue, so I pursued it,” she said.

That decision would shape the rest of her life.

After teaching at Hemmingay Preparatory School and spending a brief period at Catherine Hall Primary School, she joined the staff at Granville Primary and Infant School in 1987, her alma mater, where she has remained ever since.

Rising from a classroom teacher to principal in 2009 made the experience even more meaningful.

“It was surreal to me and then I had my principal working alongside me. When she saw me she said, ‘Come my baby, come in’,” Mrs. Franklyn Brown said, recalling the emotional moment of returning to the school that had first nurtured her.

She told JIS News that throughout her career, literacy has remained her greatest area of interest.

While teaching at Granville Primary, she embraced the Centre of Excellence for Teacher Training (CETT) programme, which sought to strengthen reading instruction.

Armed with new resources, books and instructional strategies, Mrs. Franklyn Brown immersed herself in the programme.

Her dedication paid off as she was selected as Teacher of Excellence for three consecutive years and she proudly watched reading outcomes improve, with children achieving reading levels of 70 per cent or higher.

Today, as principal, that same commitment continues.

Mrs. Franklyn Brown has championed Jolly Phonics at the infant level and is preparing even more opportunities for students in the upcoming school year, including a robotics programme and a literacy centre.

“I have no regrets, and I realised that I’m a real teacher. I have a passion for children. I have a passion for what I do. My goal is to ensure that the children who cannot read, that they really get a good start,” she said.

Mrs. Franklyn Brown’s own academic journey reflects that lifelong mission.

She earned a master’s degree in reading from Central Connecticut State University and even in retirement, she hopes to continue helping children develop literacy skills.

She dedicated the Golden Torch Award to her daughter, an Information Technology teacher at Herbert Morrison Technical High School.