“PIONEERING FAMILIES AND THE HISTORY OF SCHOOLING IN OTTAWA” BY DHANRAJ SIVASANKER
We are privileged to publish this article in our series on the PIONEERING FAMILIES OF OTTAWA.)
( The pioneers above are Mr Badlu Debi and his wife, Nowrathni Debi, who worked at the Ottawa Sugar Estate as indentured labourers. They are great- grand-parents of Mr Dhanraj Sivasanker)
EARLY HISTORY ON THE ARRIVAL OF INDENTURED LABOURERS
The British Colony of Natal in 1860 embarked on the establishment of sugar-cane farming on a large scale, the British Government launched its immigration schemes of importing indentured Indian labourers from India to help in the agriculture of sugarcane.
It is now over 150 years since the first group of indentured Indians landed on the shores of South Africa in 1860.
Ever since then, Indians have carved a niche as businessmen, professionals, artists, politicians, sportsmen, academics and administrators. This proved themselves to be a group of hardworking people who contributed towards a rich and glorious heritage.
Prominent leaders emerged from very humble beginnings and went on to achieve outstanding success. It is therefore evident that progress and prosperity that followed over the generations can be attributed to the self-help and self-sacrifice attitudes and practices of the simple, rustic lifestyles of our ancestors.
BUILDING OF SCHOOLS BECAME A PRIORITY IN LL COMMUNITIES
Our indentured forefathers and mothers first built schools for education, followed by putting a roof over their heads as homes.
They considered EDUCATION as a priority for the community. Therefore, in every settlement of Indians in South Africa was built a state-aided school with the meagre earnings of the indentured labourers. Quite often these contributions from those who could least afford to give were greater than those benefactors whose names came to be
prominently displayed.
The heritage of simple living in the spirit of harmony and togetherness characterised a peaceful and productive community where all its members shared a common bond without any ego, pride, jealousy or envy.
The Indian community in Natal, and indeed, the whole of South Africa, can be proud of its achievements in the field of EDUCATION.
THIRST FOR EDUCATION
The thirst for education among the pioneer Indian families led to the establishment of many Government-Aided schools throughout the length and breadth of Natal. Many of the state-aided schools still exist at the present time. Initially the schools began with an enrolment of few pupils but as circumstances changed with the increase in school-going population there was a need for extensions and improvements to school buildings. Parents became aware that there was a need for larger school buildings with more classrooms.
OTTAWA – ONE OF THE PRIME EXAMPLES IN THE QUEST FOR EDUCATION
(Four voluntary builders who were made enormous sacrifices for the construction of the Jhugroo Primary School. One of the Pioneers here is Mr Ismail Malee Sayed, who lived with his large family in a house at the corner of Munn and School roads.)
Such was the case of OTTAWA, a small village on the North Coast of Natal, about 25km from Durban and about 1km south of Verulam. The sugarcane fields were run by large estates and the mill was owned by Anthony Wilkinson.
Many Indians worked and lived on the sugar estates in homes called barracks.
By 1930s Indians who opted to stay on the Ottawa Sugar Estates after the expiry of their contracts with the British Government in Natal were allowed to buy land in the Ottawa area.
Among the pioneer families who settled in the tiny village of Ottawa were the Badri Maharaj family, the Nursingh family, the Badlu Debi family, the Kista Pather family, the Gobindar Sirkar family, the Abdul Rahaman family and the Jhugroo family of Mount Vernon.
Prior to 1936, parents living in Ottawa Village, Ottawa Sugar Estate, Mount Vernon, Sykes Estate and Waterloo Estate sent their children for primary education to schools in Verulam and Umdloti. The school in Umdloti was the old Verulam Mission School. A few went to Mount Edgecombe School. However, only boys from Ottawa Village were sent to school because of the great distances that they had to walk from home to school while girls were kept at home. In fact, the boys who went to school were much older than the school-going age of pupils of today.
Consequently, the pioneer elders of Ottawa Village showed growing concern as the school-going population of Ottawa increased. The greatest fear was that, a number of children would receive no education at all as it became a common sight to see youngsters carrying hoes and making their way with their parents to work on the sugar fields where their task was largely to weed the fields. Many were employed as herd boys who drew the mule spans.
PIONEERS WANTED TO SEE ALL CHILDREN ATTENDING SCHOOLS
The pioneer elders expressed their deepest concern that Education was the birth right of every child in the community of Ottawa Sugar Estate; and respected and God-fearing men like J. Kissoon, J.Munn, J.Mungal, J.Chithoo, Perithumby Subrayen, K.C.Moonisami, T. Perumal, Badri Maharaj, Ganas Pather, Badlu Debi, Nursingh, the Sirkar Brothers, the Mahabeers of Sykes Estate and the Mahabeers of Mount Vernon took it upon themselves to attend to the education of children.
In 1936, an inaugural meeting was held in a cottage which became the first private school. J.Kissoon was elected the chairman and Perithumby Subrayen was elected the secretary of the School Board. Members of the school board walked great distances to Trenance Estate, Ottawa Estate, Blackburn Estate and Mount Vernon to seek out eligible pupils for school enrolment.
Hence the first school was opened with the required number of pupils in a cottage which was well known later as Dickie Maharaj's home.
This school was known as JHUGROO PRIVATE INDIAN SCHOOL, which was later named as "JHUGROO" in honour of the father of J. Kisson brothers. Classes from introductory level to standard three were conducted here with Janakiepersadh Jaggath and Perithumby Subrayen as the first two teachers.
However, the school was unable to meet the growing demands for accommodation of pupils. The School Board under the able leadership of Kissoon Jhugroo decided to build a larger school on the land of the Jhugroo Family along the old North Coast Road in Ottawa. The Kissoon Brothers built a wood and iron structure with two classrooms to serve the needs of the community, and by the end of 1936 the school applied for Government-Aided status. It opened its doors in February 1937 with Mr R. Ramhorry as the first principal who served only one month. The new building accommodated pupils from introductory level to standard four.
By 1940, there was further need to extend the school to accommodate 40 pupils as the school-going population increased. But by 1943 the school roll increased to 188 pupils. Therefore, the neighbouring Black School was used as an annexe to accommodate, a number of pupils. By April 1944, pupils from the annexe were transferred to the main building.
Further shortage of accommodation at the school was resolved by the Ottawa Indian Social Club led by M. Parthab, P. Subrayen, J. Mungal, P.B Maharaj, Michael Susai and others who decided to extend the old building by adding more classrooms. By 1948, when the extension was completed, pupils from class one occupied the new classrooms.
In July 1948, Mr J.G.Peters succeeded Mr R.P. Das as principal of Jhugroo School and by January, 1949 Mr J.G.Peters recorded the worsening accommodation problem on a waiting list for admission to the school. By the end of December 1949, Mr J.G.Peters was promoted as Principal of Talwantsingh Government-Aided School. He was then succeeded by Mr A.L. Narayadu as Principal of Jhugroo School in 1950.
In 1953, the School Board and the Natal Education Department had a discussion with a view to establishing a private platoon school to ease the accommodation problem. In 1953 Mr S.S.Maharaj was appointed the School Grantee in place of Mr Dhooma who had resigned. And with the establishment of the private platoon school, the opening and closing times of the school changed and the standard five and standard six pupils were transferred to Verulam Secondary School to further alleviate the accommodation problem.
However, all attempts to alleviate lack of school accommodation did not help to solve the problem because it was getting more and more acute with the growing school-going population in Ottawa as the township was expanding with the development of many new houses. There was a plea from parents to the principal, Mr A.L. Narayadu and the grantee, Mr S.S. Maharaj, that something had to be done to improve the situation as the old school had served its purpose.
THE BUILDING OF THE NEW JHUGROO PRIMARY SCHOOL
A public meeting of the residents of Ottawa and neighbouring areas was called to discuss the problem of accommodation. At a meeting held on 6 January 1957, a COMMITTEE comprising of Mr S.S.Maharaj, Mr M. Parthab, Mr S. Badlu and others was elected to look into finding alternate solutions. Since the old school site was inadequate for any further expansion to the school building, a new school site had to be found; and it had to be a site that would not only serve for a school building but that it would also be one that would provide a sizeable ground for extra-curricular activities. To obtain land to build a bigger school was now a problem. Who would be in a position to donate such a piece of land?
MRS SANJARIA JHUGROO
The Committee comprising Mr S.S. Maharaj, Mr P.B. Maharaj, Mr M. Parthab, Mr S. Badlu, Mr A.L.G. Hoosen together with Mr A.L. Narayadu, the school principal, decided to approach Mrs Sanjaria Jhugroo, the wife of late Kisson Jhugroo. As old as she was, she realised that education played a very important role in the life of the children of Ottawa. When the Committee met with her, she without any hesitation attributed her motherly-soul for the sake of the education of children and whole-heartedly agreed to donate two and half acres of land in memory of her late husband.
The Committee, indeed, welcomed the site as a suitable one for a bigger school, and on 28 February,1957 Inspector Mr McAllister of Natal Education Department visited the site and approved it as a suitable and ideal school site.
Having obtained the donation of the land for the school site, money was now required to fund the building of the school. The residents of Ottawa and the neighbouring sugar estates could not afford large sums of money to finance the construction of the school, and the people in the neighbouring areas could not be approached as they too were busy with school projects in their own communities.
“POUND TO POUND” BY NATAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
(This was the progress in the construction of the new school after 11 months)
Finally, the Natal Education Department came to the rescue to finance the school building project on a pound for pound basis.
Plans for five classrooms were completed at an estimated cost of 26 300 pounds. Donations received from residents in Ottawa and Ottawa Sugar Estate were received. However, donations received were insufficient to cover the cost of the building.
VOLUNTARY BUILDERS
In order to cover the COST OF LABOUR, it was decided to seek out people who could offer their building skills and services on a free and voluntary basis. Thus, Mr S.S. Maharaj, the School Grantee, founded the VOLUNTARY BUILDERS' ASSOCIATION; and Mr S.Badlu was elected the Foreman of the school building project because of his experience and expertise in the building industry. Together with Mr S.S.Maharaj, he approached the people of Ottawa who had some knowledge and skills of building. Among them were Mr M. Parthab, Mr M.M.Naicker, Mr Amrith Singh, Mr Bobby Singh, Mr Freddy Soobramoney and gradually other enthusiastic volunteers like Mr T. Balmohan and Mr Hiralall Maikoo joined in the spirit of selfless human solidarity and offered their services with love for the education of children in the Community of Ottawa.
When the school project got off the ground in 1957, Mr S.S.Maharaj would go round Ottawa to round up the voluntary builders who promised to begin the project. Gradually, with the progress of construction the spirit of voluntary building spread among the people, and both young and old converged on the school building site to assist with the construction through the labour of love, excitement, and sheer enthusiasm.
All voluntary builders would meet on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays and during their annual holidays. Work on the project would commence at 5.30 am and finish as late as 7.30pm in summer.
Lunch was provided for all builders and workers on site and the grocery and vegetables were all sponsored by merchants in Durban. The spirit of co-operation and hard work on a voluntary basis saw the school project progress brick by brick each week-end and holiday period until the first five classrooms were ready by the end of 1957. On completion of the first five classrooms, it was decided to transfer a few classes from the old wood and iron building to the new one.
At the subsequent meetings of the Committee, it was decided to extend the building from five classrooms to 14 classrooms, including an administrative office and staff room. It was also decided to add a kitchen for preparation of school meals and a caretaker's quarters. A terraced pavilion was also planned for the playground for pupils to sit.
MR M M NAICKER AND MR S BADLU – OPENING OF SCHOOL IN MARCH 1962
It took about five and half years to complete the whole project of the new Jhugroo State-Aided School. In honour of the excellent services rendered, Mr M. M. Naicker was given the honour to lay the Foundation Stone while Mr S.Badlu, the foreman of the project, was honoured with the official opening of the school on 24 March 1962.
With the final completion of the school project driven by the spirit of co-operation and selfless dedication, the voluntary builders, under the able supervision of Mr S. Badlu, finally breathed a sigh of relief and satisfaction of service rendered. More so, they were happy that the children of Ottawa would not be turned away from school for lack of accommodation. Jhugroo Primary School is the only school to be constructed exclusively by voluntary labour in the community of Ottawa. Today the school stands as an outstanding cultural monument of outstanding community effort for generations to come.
PRESENT AND FUTURE GENERATIONS MUST TREASURE THE JHUGROO PRIMARY SCHOOL
As a mark of respect and honour, it is hoped that the present and future residents of Ottawa shall treasure JHUGROO PRIMARY SCHOOL as an educational monument of selfless sacrifice in memory of the Pioneer Residents.
We also owe our heart-felt gratitude and blessings to all voluntary workers who devoted their time and energy under the able supervision and expertise of Mr S. Badlu for his commitment and high professional workmanship on a voluntary basis.
Mr S. Badlu's Life's purpose and passion to serve the community in which he lived was inspired by his Faith and Belief in "SERVICE TO GOD IS SERVICE TO HUMANITY" and in all humility he expressed his sincere gratitude to God for blessing him and his team of voluntary workers with excellent health, courage, strength and spiritual power to complete the project for the good of the present and future generations who attend Jhugroo Primary School.
And as a mark of great appreciation and inspiration, ex-students hold Jhugroo Primary in very high esteem as their alma mater and feel greatly honoured and grateful for the education received under the excellent tutelage and guidance of educators who made a significant difference to their lives. Their basic primary education had a positive influence on their progress and performance at high school where they eventually matriculated. Their matriculation certificates opened the doors to higher learning institutions such as colleges, technikons and universities where they qualified with degrees, diplomas and trade certificates.
Many of the past students over the years qualified as doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, teachers, lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects and artisans. These men and women had fulfilled the dreams and wishes of the great forefathers who believed that education was the most valuable tool for humanity to survive in any society. Ends – Oct 16 2023
