Retired Educator Honoured for Service

Retired Educator, Casilda Allen, says her decision to become an educator was born out of the need to spend more time with her two young children.

In an interview with JIS News, Mrs. Allen shared that after completing elementary school, she gained employment at the People’s Cooperative (PC) Bank in St. Mary, where she stayed for several years.

However, on becoming a mother, she made the decision to pursue a career in teaching, which would allow her to spend more time with her children.

On National Heroes Day (October 16), Mrs. Allen was among the more than 200 Jamaicans who were recognised for their contribution to nation-building.

She received the Badge of Honour for Meritorious (BH){M} Service to Education and Community Development.

“I never felt happy leaving my two young children in the care of others when I am at work and being a teacher would allow me to spend more time with them, because when they are on holidays, I would also be on holidays. The decision to become a teacher was an easy one because I always loved teaching,” Mrs. Allen says.

She spent 28 years, from 1973 to 2001, moulding the minds and lives of thousands of students who attended Donnington Primary, Rose Bank All-Age, and the Carron Hall All-Age and Infant schools, all located in St. Mary. Born in Windsor Castle in the parish 82 years ago, the third of four children for her parents, Mrs. Allen was placed at the Pringles Home for Girls at a very young age after her mother died.

She says that living at the Home for Girls, operated by the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, would prepare her to become a teacher and a nurturer.

Her passion for nurturing children was not limited only to the classroom but also at church and the wider community in general, because she always loved teaching long before becoming a trained teacher.

Mrs. Allen received formal training through what was then called the In-Service Teacher Education Trust (ISTET) programme for pre-trained teachers.

The four-year programme was offered in the format of on-the-job training and workshops conducted at Mico Teachers’ College during the Easter and summer holidays.

Although she taught all the subjects to her primary-level students, she tells JIS News that English Language was always her favourite subject, both as a teacher and as a student.

She points out that the journey to matriculate to become a trained teacher was not a straightforward one.

Mrs. Allen sat the Jamaica Local Examination at the Carron Hall Elementary School but did not pass because she failed Mathematics.

However, while working at the PC Bank she studied on her own, sat and passed eight Jamaica School Certificate (JSC) subjects, many with distinctions.

Being an avid reader and the love she had for English Language would play a significant role in her passing the JSC subjects.

As a teacher, she recalls walking over five miles sometimes, even wading across rivers, or getting a ride on a Honda 50 bike to reach to her school.

This was due to lack of consistent transportation in her early days as a teacher.

Her dedication was unmatched, so no effort was spared to reach her students.

“I was very vigilant, especially looking out for the ones who may have eye problems; maybe this stemmed from the fact that I started wearing glasses at age 16,” she recalls. Mrs. Allen believes that teaching is an honourable profession with great rewards; “maybe not financially, but when you look back and see that you have moulded the lives of children, you have stuck to the task regardless of the challenges and witness them taking their places in society becoming nation-builders, it brings me joy,” Mrs. Allen says.

She is encouraging educators to continue to give of their best in this noble field, because this profession is a God-given calling.

Mrs. Allen recalls being not only a teacher to her students but also a mother to them.

“Teaching is very different now in comparison to 40 years ago. During my time as a teacher, we had a very close relationship with our students; parental involvement was lesser, which means as a teacher we do a lot of parenting too. Now parents can be easily contacted if schools are having issues with students,” she tells JIS News. Mrs. Allen served the education sector without reservation, extending her service to the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) for all her years of teaching and, by extension, served as teacher representative/contact teacher for Carron Hall All-Age school for years.

She was also an active member of the Central District Association of Teachers.

Described as a community person, Mrs. Allen’s contribution to community development included being assigned the coordinator for the Food For the Poor Distribution Initiative, which caters to the needy in Carron Hall, for over 20 years.

She has worked tirelessly in the Carron Hall community and particularly in the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

As an Elder in the church, she sat on the Board of Elders in the position of Secretary for more than 20 years.

This position allowed her to serve the Carron Hall Charge of Churches, which consists of three congregations.

Her hard work and dedication were also evident through her work with the visiting Health Missions from churches overseas that have helped hundreds of Jamaicans to receive medical, dental and optical care.

Mrs. Allen has a daughter who followed in her footstep as a teacher, and a son who is in media.