When Debe High School first opened its doors 25 years ago in the rolling cane­fields of Debe, along the new­ly paved M2 Ring Road built un­der for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day, it marked the be­gin­ning of a qui­et but pow­er­ful ed­u­ca­tion­al rev­o­lu­tion.

For the first time, chil­dren of all abil­i­ties—in­clud­ing slow learn­ers and those pre­vi­ous­ly left be­hind by the Com­mon En­trance sys­tem—were giv­en a place in a sec­ondary school. This was a vi­sion cham­pi­oned by then ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter, now Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who be­lieved that no child should be de­nied an ed­u­ca­tion and worked to cre­ate a space for every stu­dent.

Among that pi­o­neer­ing group of stu­dents was Su­ruj Mi­tra Sookraj, who re­mem­bers walk­ing in­to a school that felt less like an in­sti­tu­tion and more like a home. “It was a fam­i­ly,” Sookraj re­called. “The teach­ers weren’t just teach­ers—they were par­ents. They pro­tect­ed us, they guid­ed us, and they made sure we be­lieved in our­selves, es­pe­cial­ly Mrs (In­di­ra) Boodram, who was a moth­er fig­ure to me.”