“Practically, teachers need to know a lot of stuff about classroom testing, and I felt that if I became specialized in that area and worked at the university, I would be able to impart knowledge to them so that they can help the school system, and this motivated me.”By Leon SuseranEducation—pursued by many,Wholesale Jerseys NFL, every single day, with the hope of having a better standard of life and being equipped with the skills needed to function better in a vastly changing world. Whether it is accessing a primary, secondary or even higher education, these days, education is valued to a great extent.Rajkumar SookrajThis is why many of us make harsh sacrifices to attain a good education, even when we never thought it was in us to do so; to excel, to exceed, to come out on top. How discouraged many of us can become when we stumble along the way; when we fail in life. But the important thing is getting up, dusting ourselves off and trying harder again with the intent to succeed.The story of Rajkumar Sookraj is one just like that. Hailing from a poor fishing family on the Lower Corentyne, his father worked tirelessly in the sugar industry, away from home, leaving his [Raj’s] mother to shoulder much of the responsibilities in the home. But as we will see, this young, playful and carefree ‘country boy’ met his own set of challenges in life; aimed high in his quest for education and proved to many that one from a poor ‘country’ background can make it to great heights, with determination, and a bit of motivation of course.He was born at Number One Road, Corentyne, in a community that dealt with mostly farming and fishing. Most of the men in the village were employed by the nearby sugar estate.“We had a lot of interaction with friends—cricket, games, and we would help a lot with chores and livestock in the homes and involve ourselves, too, with farming as well”, he reflected. His father worked at the Providence Estate. He would be away from the home during the week and come home on the weekends. However, this did not really affect them much.“My mother had to take up the responsibility but it didn’t interfere with us much, because despite he (father) was not there, everything was normal, in terms of discipline and every other basic comfort was there”. There were 3 other brothers and a sister, “but I grew up alone because the others were very big, so I was the child who grew up with my mother and father alone”.He attended Gibraltar Primary from 1973-1982 and Lower Corentyne Secondary form 1982-1985.Rajkumar shared a few memories from childhood. “I did stuff normally that boys did…we went to the trench and bathe, and to the cane fields and get a piece of cane; catch birds—we used to go and play cricket; we had a lovely reef where everybody in the community would meet up there, especially during rainy days, nice grass, and we would enjoy playing softball cricket there”.In his village during the evenings, they would go out on the dams, also with adults, and play ‘saul pass’ “and you would enjoy, especially during moonlight nights,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, the neighbours would come together, sit, and the children would play around and we used to play until nine. We had farms and I used to go with my friends and pick mangoes”.Mr Sookraj and his family (from left): Devan, Maria, Sharda and Avinash.Young Raj got a bit discouraged after his CXC qualifications were “a bit poor”. He credited this to his ‘playful’ attitude. “To me, I wasn’t serious over the schoolwork—I can tell you—I was a real movie fan, so it was like Sundays,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, Wednesdays and Fridays, we used to run away from school and go and see the 1:15 [pm] show. It was not like I didn’t have potential but the interest…it was like I was involved in stuff boys would normally do and paid less attention to school”.After being informed that there was a shortage of teachers in the system, he applied to enter the teaching profession and started to teach at Gibraltar Primary in 1987.? A few years later, he entered the training college. Little did he realize that he had a lot of potential during the time he was asked to do some upgrading exams for teachers entering the Teachers’ Training College.? He performed very well in the exams and went straight into the teacher-training.Life from that point became a bit more serious for Raj as he began to concentrate more on his studies and life-intended career of teaching.“That was the turning point and I started CPCE and I came out as the second Best Graduating Student in 1997,” he stated. This was quite the opposite from the high school scenario and his CXC results. He had indeed become more serious with his work.“I had this competitive spirit in class that I should rise… you know, and I realized that naturally, I started to perform better and