28 The Parade was built around 1868 and has only ever had three occupants.  In the first two articles in this series we looked at the two earlier occupiers:

• 28 The Parade – The Billups Family and their pivotal role in the formation of the Salvation Army.
• 28 The Parade – Cardiff High School for Girls.

In this third article we look at the most recent occupants – The Parade Community Education Centre.

In the summer of 1971 Cardiff High School for Girls vacated the building as part of their move up to Ty Celyn School on Llandennis Road.

When Ravinand ‘Ravi’ Mooneeram saw the vacated building he saw an opportunity. Teaching was in his blood and he already had a track record of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to some of Cardiff’s new arrivals at Fitzalan High School. The local authority gave permission for 28 The Parade to be used as a base for ESL teaching and called ‘The Parade Community Education Centre’.

The building had been vacated but not emptied.  The bins in the rooms were still full.  There was work to be done in preparing it.  One advantage however was that the caretaker from Cardiff High School for Girls days still lived in the top floor.

ESL evening classes began at the Parade in 1971.  Ravi Mooneeram became a teacher/adviser in immigrant education in the city and in 1974 he became county community tutor. Over the next few years he would liaise between schools and parents, leading to an expansion in ESL teaching. The Parade became the hub of a network of ESL classes throughout the city, initially targeting adults but later their children too. The Parade Community Education Centre had the advantage that it wasn’t tied to a specific school.

 When Panasonic opened up a factory in Cardiff employees from Japan and their families came for English lessons to No.28.

The work carried out in 28 The Parade however had another aspect.  The building provided a base for many thriving multicultural groups, enabling them to maintain their own identity and culture whilst at the same time facilitating integration.   Ravi’s whole philosophy and life’s work was one of Britain developing harmoniously into a multi-racial, multi-faith, multi-lingual and multi-cultural society.

Another aspect of the work was exchange visits with Cardiff’s twin cities such as Stuttgart in Germany and Nantes in France. Groups of pupils from schools in the Cardiff’s twin cities would meet and attend lessons at No.28.

In the 1970s all the Cardiff High School for Girls buildings along The Parade were vacated. The Parade Community Education Centre could therefore sometimes use the Assembly Hall in the adjacent building to No.28.  Even later when Ysgol Bryntaf School moved into No.27 it was still sometimes possible to use the hall for events. The South Glamorgan Youth Brass Band under Dewi Griffiths played there regularly.

Press cuttings over the years show the vast range of work that was carried out at The Parade Community Education Centre.

As well as ESL teachers other staff such John Scofield were recruited to help provide extra tutoring in maths and other subjects to pupils who were struggling in their own schools as they sought to be fully conversant in English.

In 1981, Ravi Mooneeram was appointed a magistrate.  A year later, his tireless work would be awarded with an MBE for his services to education and refugees.

He retired in July 1993 but unfortunately had poor health in retirement and sadly passed away in 2002.

His role at The Parade Community Education Centre was taken over by Samina Khan.  After 28 The Parade closed in the early 2000s Samina went on to be Equality Diversity and Community Development Manager at Cardiff and Vale College.

Ravi Mooneeram’s own life story is interesting.  He hailed from the island of Mauritius.  His father died when he was young and Ravi took over the role of father-figure to his siblings.  He was initially self-taught, borrowing many books from the local library but then he won a scholarship.  He subsidised his own high school education by tutoring younger boys at the school.  After leaving school he taught for 12 years at St Andrew’s School on Mauritius.

Ravi and his two brothers had planned to come to Britain and subsidise each other’s university education by working but it never quite worked out.  A cyclone hit and destroyed the family home. Eventually Ravi arrived in Cardiff and obtained a degree in Mathematics and Botany at Cardiff University.  Securing a teaching job however proved difficult and he ended up as a council worker.  

One day a friend spotted him cutting the grass at the Mansion House and through that contact Ravi managed to enter teaching.  He became warden at the Grangetown Centre, then, after teaching French at Cyntwell High School, Ely, for three years, he moved to Fitzalan High School to take charge of the immigrant reception class and from there to hid dream job at The Parade Community Education Centre.

28 The Parade is now 150 years old.  Let’s hope The Parade Community Education Centre were not the last occupants of this fine building. There are grounds for optimism.  It seems that the terms of a covenant  probably means the building has to be used for educational purposes. Cardiff Council has been exploring the feasibility of turning the building into a new integrated hub for young people.

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Some additional photographs showing 28 The Parade and the work that went on at The Parade Community Education Centre: