History of St. Mary's Primary School

 

HISTORY OF ST. MARY’S PRIMARY SCHOOL





St. Mary’s Primary School, now located at Mason Hall Street, Bridgetown is probably the oldest elementary school to exist in Barbados.

The school was founded in 1817 as the Colonial Charity School (near to the St. Mary’s Church wall at Lower Mason Hall Street) and was instituted for free children only. The (new) school is now located at the top of Mason Hall Street (nearest Baxters Road).

When the first school was founded, Lieutenant R. E. Lugar visited the institution, and being pleased with what he saw, recommended Bell’s system of teaching, and promised that if slave children were admitted and taught in the school with the free ones, he would guarantee the sum of £100 sterling per year from the Church Missionary Society for the salary of the Master.

This was done and the money was paid on a regular basis. On the arrival of

Bishop Coleridge, who also visited the school, the School Committee, on the application of Bishop Coleridge, gave up the supervision to him, as he had funds at his disposal with which he could pay colonial schoolmasters.

It is said the St. Mary’s Boys’ School was the first primary school to be opened in the West Indies because it was erected within ten years of the first serious effort made in England to put education within reach of all.

This effort resulted from a famous appeal out of the pulpit of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1810, in which it was represented that “nearly two-thirds of the labouring poor in the United Kingdom had little or no education”.

This appeal resulted in the “National Society for the Education of the Children of the Poor”, which became the first foster-mother of the primary school, at least as a regular institution.

The first schools were night schools, rightly rejected after a short trial on the unanswerable plea, “sleep hah no massa”. Day schools were at first much sought after, but the enthusiasm for them soon died down.

There was once a Government system of elementary education on denominational lines in Barbados which dates back from 1878. Then came compulsory education, especially at the primary school level. This compulsory education system at elementary level is practiced up to this day.

Mrs. Ursula Brathwaite has been the headmistress at the St. Mary’s Primary School since 1982. The institution now has a roll of 376 pupils, and is co-educational.

The new $2.8 million school was opened by then Minister of Education, Mr. Cyril Walker on July 7, 1991. The new school is an amalgamation of the former St. Mary’s Infants and Junior schools.

Adapted from the Barbados Advocate Parish Publication, Sunday, June 30, 1996 – St. Michael Part I Bridgetown

 

A bit more information –

            Bishop Coleridge in 1846 decided to limit the free programme traditionally offered at the St. Mary’s school to mornings only teaching the Scriptures and Catechisms. After midday children were expected to go out and learn a trade or work on the estates. “Parents who desired secular instruction in writing, arithmetic, grammar and other academic subjects would have to pay for it out of their private means.” – Education as and for Legitimacy-M. Kazim Bacchus

 

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