–Top-girl had hoped to do even better

THE Christianburg-Wismar Secondary School (CWSS), also known as “Multi”, has reportedly copped the top spots in Region 10 at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Examination Council (CSEC) examinations.
Though it has not been established by how many the school has top-scored, heading the list is Aliyah Smith with eight Grade Ones, six Grade Twos, and one Grade Three.
The subjects she scored Grade Ones in are Mathematics; Additional Mathematics; Electronic Document Preparation and Management (EDPM) General; English A; Food and Nutrition and Health Technical; Human and Social Biology General; Information Technology General; and Physical Education and Sport.
A science major, Smith also created history at CWSS as the first student to challenge herself by sitting up to 15 subjects. She was also the first to write Additional Mathematics.
She told the Guyana Chronicle on Tuesday that in spite of doing so well, she’d expected to do even better.
“I wanted to do better, but I’ve accepted my results,” she said, adding that the journey was a hectic one.

“It was a lot of preparation; it was a lot of studying. I had to move from lessons to lessons, seven days a week, and I didn’t have teachers for all of my subjects so I had to work very hard for a lot of them,” Smith said.
The teenager will now be pursuing tertiary education at the University of Guyana.

A CLOSE SECOND
Coming a close second with seven Grade Ones out of the 12 subjects he wrote is Sa-Yoor Headley from the technical stream at CWSS. His Grade One subjects are: Mathematics General; EDPM General; Industrial Technology; Building and Industrial Technology; Electrical and Information Technology General; Technical Drawing General; and Physical Education and Sports General.
Sa-Yoor, who had his grounding at Mackenzie High, does not regret switching schools in Fourth Form. “In my opinion,: he said, “the technical stream at CWSS is way better than the ‘tech’ stream at MHS… The teachers are really, really good at ‘Multi’.”
When asked to describe how he felt about his results, the young lad said:
“I’m feeling pretty good, though I didn’t do as well as I thought I would. I didn’t plan on getting ‘Three’ in Physics; but that’s the only thing I am vexed about.
“But the ‘Ones’ and ‘Twos’, I am feeling pretty good about those.”
In addition to copping a number of spots in the region’s top 10, CWSS’s improved academic performance over the last three years at CSEC has shown that the teachers and students are trying hard to also take the Sixth Form monopoly from MHS.
It’s a sentiment shared by this year’s top student, Aliyah Smith. “I think it is really good for a change, and it is good that ‘Multi’ can produce students with that potential, because we can get another Sixth Form school in Linden,” she said.

RAISING THE BAR
Headmaster, Cleveland Thomas, who has been lauded by many parents and teachers for his efforts at bringing the school back to its former glory, had alluded to that in a previous interview.
Thomas had told the Guyana Chronicle that his desire is to see the school obtain Sixth Form status, but the focus will be given to vocational subjects, thus catering for those students who are technically inclined.
“It must cater for those boys and girls who would want to get into the technological field, and that is why we have really tried to maintain the technological slant of the school,” Thomas said.
In 2015, for the first time in decades, CWSS copped seven of the region’s top 10 spots; and while it did not do as well in 2016, it did get two spots.
The overall pass rate for the school had increased from 62% to 67%.
Thomas credited this great achievement to several factors, among them extending the school’s curriculum by offering such subjects as Spanish, Economics, Theatre Arts and Physics.
“We have really worked hard on making sure our children understand the basic functions of students in an institution like a school,” he said, adding:
“We have also tried to let our teachers understand their function. We don’t operate loosely here; we operate as a team, where each individual has his or her role to play.”