President’s College student Shalita Appadu, 18, of Corentyne, Berbice, has topped this year’s CAPE examinations.
Appadu, a former student of the New Amsterdam Multilateral Secondary School, scored six grade ones and one grade two at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE). The results were announced yesterday by Education Minister Priya Manickchand in Essequibo. In a telephone interview with Stabroek News, Appadu stated that she did not expect such good grades at the examination.
She added that she is extremely elated and has never been happier since her dreams are coming through. Appadu stated that she would like to pursue an associate degree in Biology and Medical Science.
Close behind her were six Queen’s College students including Anuradha Dev. She along with five others secured five grade ones.
The academic performances of Appadu and Dev are almost uncanny, since only two years ago they tied for first place at the CSEC examinations. They each notched up 15 grade ones then.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Education, the other QC students with five grade ones are Melodie Lowe, Kaleshwar Singh, Prashant Shivdas, Deowattie Narine, and Benedict Sukra.
Also in the top echelons were Malinie Tulsie of Queen’s College with 4 ones, one two and one three; Amrita Milling (QC), Andy Sattan (QC) and Anil Tulsie (St Stanislaus) with four ones and one two; Jonelle James (QC) with four ones and one three and Rooana Rose (QC) with four ones.
This year there were 748 candidate entries taking 3118 subjects. The pass rate was 89.19% compared to 86.2% the previous year.
In terms of the gender breakdown, 1959 females wrote the assessment while only 1018 sat the exams.
This year, 2013 entries were received from eight public schools and two private entities.
The ministry’s analysis of the results showed an increase in pass rates for the Bishops’ High, New Amsterdam Multilateral, Queen’s College and St Rose’s compared to 2012. Bishops’ pass rate was the best, moving from 95.49 in 2012 to 89.19 this year.
