St. Benedict's College

St. Benedict's College is a secondary school located in La Romaine, Trinidad and Tobago. The school was founded by Dom Basil Matthews and first opened on September 11, 1956.

The school was the brain-child of a Benedictine Monk Dom Basil Matthews. He was ordained priest in the Order of St Benedict in 1935, one of the first Trinidadians to be elected to that office. When Dom Basil was sent to minister in the San Fernando region in the early 1950s, he felt that he had to do something about the lack of educational opportunity in the district.

In 1953, Matthews began laying the foundation for what evolved into St Benedict's College. His main purpose in establishing the school, as he revealed afterwards, was "to cater for children from the countryside who could not make it out to town and did not have a chance at even passing the Common Entrance Examination." He encouraged the church to purchase land from the Lucky family in La Romaine and their home was used as the building to house the primary school. Many scoffed at his idea but Dom Basil was undaunted and with the support of Archbishop Ryan, some businessmen and parishioners, he was able to bring his dream to fruition.

St. Benedict's College opened its doors on September 11, 1956 with 220 students. It was to be one of the first comprehensive schools in the country for besides the normal grammar school subjects, a number of technical and vocational subjects formed part of the curriculum. In 1957, with support of the then Minister of Education, Dr. Patrick Solomon, St. Benedict's became a government assisted school. There was a steady expansion from then on. the staff room block was opened in 1960. the auditorium in 1961 and the playing field in 1963 at La-Romaine by the Sea. Dom Basil believed that excellence in sports would develop the self-esteem of students which would lead to an improvement in academic standards.

He said that soon after starting the school he found that the children had talent but lacked a sense of self-worth because they lacked the opportunity of getting into a 'big school.' He saw it as his job to build up their won self-respect and self-worth, and their motivation to exploit their human talents. St Benedict's was the first composite school in the country, offering, in addition to the usual academic subjects, commerce, accounts, typewriting, and domestic science. Many observers scoffed at the introduction of these subjects in a college. Discovering musical talent among the students, Dom Basil introduced music into the curriculum, using English musical directors to lay the groundwork for that subject.

...
Wikipedia