Queen’s College students took the majority of the top prizes at the National Awards Ceremony held on Friday at the National Cultural Centre.
Anna Regina Secondary followed very close behind copping all three awards in the best performing junior secondary school category at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC).
Yana Marisa Edwards, Simanthani Lalaram and Farzana Razack all of Queen’s College were awarded Best Senior Secondary Performers, while Rahul Lall, Vickram Deonarine and Yashoda Naraine all of Anna Regina Secondary were awarded Best Junior Secondary performers. All of the awardees in both categories have gained a minimum of 11 grade ones; some gained more.
Meanwhile, Nazana Weeks of QC was awarded Best Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) performer and Robert Mansell also of QC was awarded best General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level performer.
Additionally honourable mention was made of Rizwan Saffie of the Bishops’ High School and Eileen Marray of the New Amsterdam Secondary for stellar performance at the CSEC.
Yogeeta Persaud of CV Nunes Primary, Sayyid Rajab of ISA Islamic and Arianna Seeraj of St Margaret’s were awarded the top National Grade Six Assessment Performers.
Saieed Khalil and Reshana Thomas of Yeshana Ganpat of Anna Regina Secondary were awarded the best National Grade Nine Performers.
Best Graduating Cyril Potter College of Education Student (CPCE) Karen Kowlessar was also awarded.
Three students form the Carnegie School of Economics were also given awards: Sherima Kingston – best Household Management Student; Mohamed Wazim Karim – best Catering and Hospitality Student and Semone Davson -best Cosmetology Student.
Students from the Guyana Technical Institute (GTI) were also awarded in several categories.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds in his remarks told the awardees that they should not see their awards as just adornments and not to get carried away by the tributes they are being paid; but realize that this “recognition brings about an obligation to continue to deliver to the society.”
Minister of Education Shaik Baksh advised other children to take note and follow in the footsteps of those who were awarded.
He said that the country has been done well but acknowledged that the number of students who gain grades one to three in more that five subject areas should increase. He said that the ministry was working on this challenge. He said this was a problem not only faced by Guyana but by other Caribbean territories. Baksh also said that the percentage of male to female writing the CSEC exam shows that a lot of males are dropping out of the system.
While 62.18% of females wrote the exam this year, there were only 37.91% males. This was also evident in the CAPE exam where there was 61% female participation compared to 39% male.
The minister said strong intervention was needed to rectify the situation, since it was a “phenomenon in other Caricom countries.”
Special emphasis was needed in the expansion of vocational programmes in secondary schools, Baksh said, adding that the ministry was also working on implementing such.
He further stated that there was need for more emphasis on application learning, problem solving and moving away from “rote learning.”
The introduction of a six-year secondary programme in some secondary schools was also being worked on, for slow learners, Baksh said. A pilot study has already been carried out and the programme is to be implemented. The education minister said he hoped this would be a remedy for school dropouts.
Other matters also on the ministry’s list for change are the reviewing of the subjects being offered at CSEC and the streaming of students when they have reached fourth form.
Reviewing of the sixth form programme is also on the list, Baksh said. Some of the options being looked at in terms of sixth form is whether there should be a sixth form college as opposed to the classes in the secondary schools.
Should certain schools specialize in specific subjects and should A-levels be knocked out of the system and all resources concentrated on the CAPE exams. No decisions have been made as yet though, and the matter is still being reviewed. The minister said consultations have to be made with sixth form schools, including school boards.
A task team is also working on the reviewing of placement at six secondary schools to ensure better equity of placements, Baksh announced.
Meanwhile three schools received awards for being the most improved school in various categories.
St Margaret’s Primary was adjudged most improved primary school, Bladen Hall Secondary the most improved junior secondary school and St Stanislaus College the most improved senior secondary school.
