Sixteen-year-old Yana-Marisa Edwards of Queen’s College has been named the country’s top Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) student.
An Education Ministry source yesterday confirmed that Edwards is the nation’s top student. The source noted said that at a press conference to present results through the media, Minister of Education Shaik Baksh had given a list of names of students who were vying for the top spot; but had said that the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) had not yet determined the top CSEC student. The media had reported that unofficially Rahul Nehaul Lall was the top CSEC student, since he had received the most grade ones on the list that was provided.
However, Stabroek News understands that Edwards with 14 grade ones and one grade two is in fact the top student. What give her the edge over Lall was her distinctions in two foreign languages: French and Spanish and a double major in Agricultural Science. Her only grade two was in Music.
Stabroek News caught up with the young lady at her school sports yesterday. “I was satisfied with the grades I got but the news made me feel elated,” Edwards said referring to being officially named the top student.
Talking about her tutelage at Queen’s College Edwards said the school goes beyond the ordinary curriculum. “They teach us integrity; self preservation… takes you beyond work and into life itself.”
Edwards said she believed her success was due to a process, which started since first form or even before that. It involved giving up a lot and making a special sacrifice. “And even now CXC is not the end but another beginning,” she said.
She plans to continue in sixth form and do A-levels.
The daughter of physician Dr Morris Edwards and Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, the 16-year-old plans to follow in her father’s footsteps and study medicine. “I have a lot of time to change my mind though,” she said smiling.
Exams results were issued in Guyana on August 21, several days after they were released in other Caribbean territories. When the results were read to the media at a press conference, the exam slips had not yet arrived to be distributed to schools. Baksh had at the time stated his displeasure at the council’s “slothfulness.”
CXC had then reported that an overall two per cent increase in candidates’ performance at the CSEC examinations throughout the region was recorded this year. A press release from the council had said that 62 per cent of the 563,302 entries received acceptable grades.
