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When Tamara Byroo walks into a classroom, her mission is clear: "No child should leave the same way they came."

For almost 26 years, 23 of those at Annotto Bay Primary School in St Mary, she has been doing more than teaching lessons - she's been transforming lives. Byroo told THE STAR that she sees it as her duty not just to teach, but to elevate her students.

"I don't believe that when you teach a child, you just pass on and leave them alone. You have to keep following them up and push them to want to elevate for more," she said.

One of the lives she changed is that of 29-year-old Tadrea Davis, who entered Byroo's grade four classroom unable to read or write. Raised by his grandaunt while both parents worked - his mother as a live-in domestic helper and his father juggling responsibilities for 19 children - Davis had fallen through the cracks of the early education system.

"I didn't have a mother or father to grow me the right way, to teach me how to pronounce words or sound out letters," Davis recalled. "Other kids would have their parents to guide them, to say this is how you make alphabetic sounds, to teach them to spell 'cat,' 'rat.' I didn't have that."

By grade four, Davis had already failed the exam required to move to the next grade, and was placed in what the school called a "shelter class", a remedial space for students who were significantly behind.

"It was very embarrassing. People would call me 'Grade Four Grandpa'," he admitted.

But in Byroo's classroom, he found hope. She immediately recognised how far behind Davis was and began working with him from the basics, teaching him phonics, spelling, and reading with daily lines and books.

"I cannot forget this book, The Cat Woman and the Spinning Wheel. We had to go home and practise it every day. And if you come back and can't read it? You in problem!" he said, adding that after failing the Grade Four Literacy Test, Byroo insisted Davis repeat the grade.

"She said, 'Yuh nah leff yah suh until yuh learn fi duh the thing the right way.' She spent several hours helping us, giving us books, making charts, teaching us the sounds - like 'A' for apple - from the start to the end."

To Davis, Byroo was more than just a teacher.

"She changed my life. Before Ms Byroo, mi did dunce, dunce like bat, never even know A," he said.

Still, her support didn't end when he left her class, as even after leaving school, he still communicated with her.

"I would ask her for advice. She motivated me to excel," said Davis, who is now a constable in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

Byroo attributes her relentless drive to help children to her own humble beginnings.

"Coming from a poor background, knowing what it's like to not have, and knowing that education is one of the major tools that can lift you from a lower stage to a higher stage, you have to make sure children are educated," Byroo explained. "Some parents go without to make sure their children come to school. So they have to leave with something." Byroo said that there's nothing more fulfilling than when you see a child excelling.

"If you're just going to be in the classroom and allow the children to go through the system, then you are wasting your time, their parents' time, and the children's time. It makes no sense," he said.

Today, Davis carries her teachings with him wherever he goes, not just the reading and writing, but the discipline, determination, and self-worth she instilled.

"Not every teacher in Jamaica will make the sacrifice that this teacher made in my life. She went beyond her time and her call of duty to ensure that we learnt. She motivated us, which helped us to elevate," he said.

And for Byroo, there's no better reward.

"If I can help change even one life, then I've done my job," she said.