REFUGE, Trelawny

“Good Morning gentleman!” the twenty-four young voices of the children seated in the classroom where the grades one and two students are housed at the Refuge All Age, are strong and exuberant as the school’s principal, Sonia Knowles, introduces the Observer West reporter.

It’s then business as usual as classes begin at the Refuge All-Age school which now operates as a primary school because it only has 71 students and three teachers on staff who have to teach two of the school’s six grades.

First, Knowles – one of 25 Jamaican educators honoured with the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation for long and outstanding service at a ceremony at Jamaica House last week – writes a list of words on the chalkboard and instructs the students from both classes to study them.

After a few minutes the children are charged to close their eyes by a gentle but stern Knowles, who asks them to correctly spell one of the words that were written on the board.

A cluster of tiny arms swing upwards almost involuntarily, as the students jockey for the chance to produce the correct spelling of the word.

“Put your hand up if you can spell the word friend,” the 34-year classroom maestro commands. After two overzealous boys spell the word incorrectly, Mark Wedderburn, who seems to have the traits of a future Spelling Bee champion nonchalantly does the honours.

The same task will be applied to the more advanced grade two students, who will exhibit the same level of enthusiasm as the junior students.

Occasionally a few students try to pull off a fast one by taking a peek at the board.

But they they are not quite quick enough. “You are cheating I will have to disqualify you,” the principal warns.

After the words are spelt correctly, Knowles asks the rest of the class to reiterate the spelling before shifting the lesson with the utmost ease to the construction of sentences using the same set of words.

Soon after, the headmistress mandates her students to continue studying the words and heads for her office to carry out her administrative responsibilities.

Sonia Knowles is a native of the Refuge community in Trelawny, one of the earlier free villages established after the abolition of slavery.

She started her educational odyssey at the Refuge Elementary School after which she went to Kingston where she spent five years attending high school.

After graduating, she made a short sojourn at the St Ann’s Bay parish Council where she was employed to the Road and Works department.

Married with five children, Knowles says she had no intention of becoming a teacher prior to a discussion with her younger niece one evening. Upon overhearing the conversation, a bystander, impressed with the young lady’s demeanour immediately encouraged her to pursue a career in the classroom.

She took his advice and applied for a job as a pre-trained teacher at Refuge All Age.

Consequently, the school principal with strong Christian conviction secured a teacher’s certificate at the Sam Sharp Teacher’s College. She also obtained a certificate in management supervision at the UWI and later a school principal diploma from Mount St Vincent University in Canada.

Currently a third year student at the Lords and Fairwhether seminary where she is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical Studies, Knowles is encouraging more youngsters “to go into teaching as it is a rewarding field, a good profession”.