// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Rupert Roopnaraine? Roof-ing expert?

Rupert Roopnaraine
Minister of Education
In office 2015–2017
President	David A. Granger
Preceded by	Shaik K.Z. Baksh
Succeeded by	Nicolette Henry
Personal details
Born	(1943-01-31)31 January 1943 Georgetown, British Guiana
Died	23 February 2026(2026-02-23) (aged 83) Georgetown, Guyana
Party	Working People's Alliance
Occupation	Author, politician, cricket player

Rupert Roopnaraine

Cricket information
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off-break
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1964–66	Cambridge University
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 29 Runs scored 302 Batting average 7.94 100s/50s 0/1 Top score 50* Balls bowled 5,974 Wickets 58 Bowling average 36.53 5 wickets in innings 2 10 wickets in match 0 Best bowling 8/88 Catches/stumpings 7/–
Source: CricketArchive

Rupert Roopnaraine (31 January 1943 – 23 February 2026) was a Guyanese cricketer, writer and politician. Roopnaraine served as Minister of Education of Guyana between 2015 and 2017.

Life and career

Early life

Roopnaraine was born in Kitty, Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana). He played first-class cricket for the Cambridge University team from 1964 to 1966 and was awarded a Blue for representing the university in the annual University Match against Oxford in 1965 and 1966. As a cricketer, he was a lower order right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler.

Politics

In 2015, Roopnaraine was appointed Minister of Education of Guyana. In 2017, he was reassigned to Ministry of the Presidency, and Nicolette Henry replaced him as Minister of Education.

Author

Primacy of the Eye: The Art of Stanley Greaves was published in 2003. Roopnaraine also contributed a substantial "Introduction" to the Peepal Tree Press 2010 edition of Edgar Mittelholzer's Shadows Move Among Them.

Roopnaraine's collection of essays, The Sky's Wild Noise, won the non-fiction category of the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. The judges commented that "in the corpus of non-fiction prose in the Caribbean intellectual tradition, only José Martí and George Lamming rival the range of Roopnaraine's capacities of response, depth of analysis and subtle and mordant style."

Death

Roopnaraine died at the Georgetown Public Hospital on 23 February 2026, at the age of 83.

Selected works

• The Web of October: Rereading Martin Carter (Peepal Tree Press, 1986)
• Suite for Supriya (love poems; Peepal Tree Press, 1993)
• Primacy of the Eye: The Art of Stanley Greaves (Peepal Tree Press, 2003)
• The Sky's Wild Noise: Selected Essays (Peepal Tree Press, 2012)