TUNAPUNA GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOL

BRIEF BACKGROUND OF THE SCHOOL AND THE STUDENT BODY IT SERVES

The Honourable Learie Constantine M.B.E. officially opened Tunapuna Government Secondary School, popularly called Tunapuna Central, on May 4th 1962. The school was one of the new model schools that were constructed in the 1960’s to increase the intake of students receiving free secondary education, having successfully sat the then ‘Exhibition’ examinations. It was one of the early co-educational, government schools, which offered a five-year course of education to students who ranked in the top ten percent of the population of 11 plus achievers. The first group of students was a mere sixty since there was only one block built at the time. Today, the student population is just over five hundred, with a Principal, Vice-Principal and a teaching staff of thirty-one, two Clerical personnel, one Laboratory Assistant, and a Maintenance and Security (MTS) crew of seven.

Few facilities were available in the 1960’s, and only academic type courses were offered then with the exception of music, which is no longer part of the curriculum. Technical courses were not done and there was little emphasis on Science due to the absence of laboratories. Today, the quality of our intake has been maintained, the curriculum comprises some twenty-two courses with technical, science and business subjects alongside the traditional Arts courses. Students are generally allowed to write seven subjects (occasionally more) at the CXC/GCE Ordinary level examinations, and the school attains between 70 – 80% full certificates. There is no Advanced level programme, so students who wish to pursue subjects at that level have to compete for places in other institutions.

Tunapuna Government Secondary has had its share of top achievers over time but unfortunately, this fact is never widely known. For example, Ria Mohammed from El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive, who placed fifth in the world this year in Management of Business, at the General Certificate of Examination Advanced level, and obtained a 2001 National Scholarship, was a former student of this school. Within the past ten years, two of our students placed first in Business Studies in the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC). Composer/Singer/Musician Leston Paul, Top female songbird Carol Addison, popular radio personality Tony Lee, and Trade Unionist Jennifer Baptiste, are some of the top achievers of this school.

Several changes other than in the area of curriculum and staffing have occurred over the last forty years. The uniform was changed from a simple grey pleated skirt or trousers and white shirt to a maroon coloured pleated skirt or trousers and white shirts in 1982. A monogram was added with the motto ‘Arise, shine, for thy light has come’, which was introduced by the then Acting Principal, Mr. Melville Jones.

The grounds have also undergone a metamorphosis. Once the home to stray cows and goats that grazed and roamed on the uncut fields, it is now well manicured and maintained by M.T.S. It now accommodates a basketball court, a cricket field and facilities for football and athletic events. Some of our athletes have competed successfully at both national and international levels in different sporting disciplines, and recently one of our students was short-listed for the Trinidad and Tobago U-17 FIFA football tournament. Our school steel band, under the name, ‘Tunapuna Sound Stars’, participated in the 1999 Junior Panorama, reaching finals.

Frequent changes in administration have also taken place. A total of some eighteen principals have been recorded beginning with Mr. Solomon Tancoo in 1960, and currently with Ms. Juliana Alexander.