MELROSE Cameron dedicated 49 years of service to Jamaica’s education sector as a teacher and early childhood education officer, for which she recently earned the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Golden Torch Award.

Her years of service ranked highest among the 206 teachers who were recognised at the awards ceremony on July 11, for giving a minimum of 35 years of service.

The 72-year-old said her grandmother’s dream was for her to work in a hospital, but she wanted to pursue a career in education.

“From I was a child growing up, I think I had it in my blood, because I’d be at home with my siblings and my friends around me and my cousins and I would be the teacher,” she said.

Cameron’s grandmother met with the matron and she secured her first job as a ward assistant and took on various roles in the hospital until she became a doctor’s secretary.

“I still wanted to do teaching. I saw an advertisement in the paper with regard to going to Caenwood Junior Teachers’ College; I applied and I got through. After leaving Caenwood, I taught for about four years and then I went to college,” she recounted.

Cameron pursued a certificate in teaching at Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College and then received specialised training in early childhood education in Nain, St Elizabeth, under a programme organised by education officers.

She returned to St James as the head of a resource centre where she provided training to teachers and children.

“While I was there, DRB Grant came there and he saw me and said, ‘But this place can’t hold you. You have filled out this place. We need somewhere to put you’,” she recalled.

That conversation led to enquiries about an unoccupied building in Catherine Hall, Montego Bay, which became the home of DRB Grant Basic and Early Childhood Resource Centre.

The late Dudley Ransford Brandyce Grant, popularly known as DRB Grant, is well known for his outstanding contribution to the development of early childhood education in Jamaica.

“We called in teachers and we trained them but when we looked around, we didn’t have a basic school, so we put that in place… There was another building on the other side of us that was not being utilised, so DRB went in and spoke to somebody from the Ministry of Education and that was how Howard Cooke Primary came into being,” Cameron shared.

She said it was rewarding to see students excel and to witness the magnitude of knowledge and skills teachers gained from training sessions over the 49 years.

“Sometimes I would leave the centre at 10 o’clock because we wanted our teachers to be good role models and teachers of a very high standard, so we worked hard. As I look in retrospect, I can see some of those same teachers saying that they were happy they came to us. It was hard work, but we survived,” Cameron said.

The educator has been retired for 11 years and spends most days delving into church and community work as well as helping the needy.

“I am feeling proud to know that somebody has seen the work that I have done and has shown appreciation,” said a cheerful Cameron.

The Golden Torch Award for service to education was instituted by the JTA in 1991 and the first awards were presented in 1993. More than 7,000 educators have received the award.