ANCIENT BEQUEST TO AID SLAVES NOW USED TO TRAIN TEACHERS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6843, 22 February 1929, Page 9

ANCIENT BEQUEST TO AID SLAVES NOW USED TO TRAIN TEACHERS

The strange way in which the island of Jamaica obtained tho money grant enabling it to supply its public primary schools, that now number nearly 700, with well trained teachers, is recalled by the appointment of Mr Hammond, inspector of schools in Nigeria, to take over the directorship of education . Back in the seventeenth century Alderman Mico, of London, donated a large sum of money to secure the liberation of Christian slaves in Algiers. The money was passed over to a board of trustees to bo ministered for the benefit of emancipated slaves and their children.

Need for the grant ceased, however, as the notorious pirates’ nest was. destroyed by the British and American fleets.- Whereupon tho Mico bequest was devoted to the establishment of primary schools in the British West Indies.

Finally the bequest was concentrated upon the Mico Training College for Male Teachers in Jamaica, where its good offices are still being maintained.

Education, of the populace in Jamaica only began after the emancipation of slaves in 1838. Under slavery, there were children's gangs placed under tuition, but these were taught exclusively occupations profitable to their owners. The missionaries (Nonconformists) and one or two of the clergymen of the Established Church opened Sunday schools, in which most of the scholars were adults.