Education in Tropical Areas 1952-1973

Dr Hugh Hawes : student 1953/4, lecturer 1967-1987.

Hugh recalls the influence on him as a student of particular members of staff:

"I came straight from Scotland, from St Andrews, bound for a post in Uganda, which I had to look up on the map.  I remember mass lectures on educational theory given by then very eminent professors rather badly, to rapidly diminishing audiences; teaching practices which varied from terrifying ones in the top classes of secondary modern schools to the most wonderful county surveys; and finally the very satisfying and inspiring times that I had in the ETA department as it was then called. My tutor for the last of these two components was as fine an educator as you could ever wish; Mr Mort. We never used first names in those days. He had worked for half a lifetime in Nigeria and the walls of his office were adorned with the pictures of the children he taught. He had sympathy, a deep well of commonsense and vision and he helped me pick my way through the first years in Africa in the face of some fairly inappropriate advice from other people. Apart from my fellow cadets, many of whom I have kept up with until now, there was a slightly smaller number of overseas students. A Sudanese called Abdullah Abdul Wahab became a particular friend and we shared rooms during the county survey in rural deep Sussex. I distinctly remember Abdullah standing in the middle of the primary school playground and with the greatest good humour allowing the children in class one to rub his skin to see whether the black colour would come off. He, like many of the people we worked with, went on to become the Minister of Education in Sudan. A great educator."

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