EDUCATOR RETIRES Entering Politics

Anne Edwards, who has 29 years of outstanding service in the field of education, went on pre-retirement leave this week, her last post being Deputy Principal at Campus B at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School.

The former educator has now announced her intention to enter the political arena as a candidate in the Road North Constituency.

“I will be running for a seat in Government and I hope to get that seat,” she declared in an interview with The Anguillian. “I am going to put in the type of work that I am capable of to ensure that the people of Road North vote me in as their representative.

“I won’t get involved in the nasty politics that all the others that went before me indulged in; and I will not be responding to any under-the-belt digs that they are hoping to give me. I am an educated woman and I have been in control managing quite a number of people including 500-odd students who gave me their respect. In no way will I lose that respect by stooping down and dealing with the type of nasty politics that all the other politicians have been indulging in.”
Ms Edwards was given an emotional send off by students and teachers at Campus B on May 7. They showered her with praise in song, poetry and other forms of expression and presented her with gifts ranging from tokens of appreciation to a huge painting produced by the collective skills of members of the student body.
Campus B opened in August 2001. “It was an exciting time because I was the Project Coordinator for the school in its infancy,” she said with pride. “It was a big challenge and seeing that the British Government gave us Campus B to see if the standard of education from year one could be changed and also the behaviour, it was important that we rise up to meet that challenge,” she said of herself and colleagues.

Ms. Edwards would have liked to see the end of term exams and the graduation and transfer of the Year 2, 2004 students to Campus A, but she was obliged to proceed on pre-retirement leave.

She is succeeded by Mrs. Ingrid Lake, who has been a Deputy Principal at Campus A for some years.

A formal ceremony in honour of Ms. Edwards was held at Paradise Cove on Tuesday evening, May 11, by the school where she was lauded for her untiring work.

Ms. Edwards attended the University of the West Indies from 1971-1975 and graduated with a BA degree in Economics. She obtained a Diploma in Education from Lancaster University in 1985 and in 1999, after one academic year at the University of Bristol, she graduated with a Master of Education degree.

Ms. Anne Edwards