Rajiv Muneshwer: A Math Extraordinaire
Rajiv Muneshwer
Rajiv Muneshwer

IF YOU think that the region’s top Mathematics student at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) is a nerd, you’re probably half right.

Rajiv Muneshwar, a 19-year-old student just out of Queen’s College, is this year’s Regional Top CAPE Mathematics student. He likes Mathematics, Science, Chess and an occasional game of table tennis. He says he enjoys playing the guitar too, but mostly because it impresses the ladies.

Over the two year period of Sixth Form, he wrote 12 CAPE units. Though some may consider this a lot, he said, “In my opinion, these aren’t a lot of subjects, they’re just subjects that I like.”

But more importantly, he said, “I just liked to push myself also.”

You see, when he wrote the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations back in 2016, he only wrote 11 subjects and copped nine grade one, and two grade two passes.

Now, this might not seem like few subjects to many, but he explained that when you’re in Queen’s College where students write more than your average number of subjects, it seems like few. So at CAPE, he came back to show he’s worth his salt.

And when it comes to Maths, he has had a special affinity since then.

Most students usually write General Mathematics in Fourth Form, so that they can write Additional Mathematics in Fifth. It makes it easier to adjust to the higher level Mathematics at the Sixth Form or University level.

But Rajiv didn’t write General Mathematics in Fourth Form. He shared, “I genuinely did not like Maths, I thought it was boring.” Yet, he did both General and Additional Mathematics the next year.

By then, he was working alongside his colleagues who had already overcome one hurdle. To this end, he explained, “I had to prove myself worthy and work twice as hard.”

Working twice as hard and exposed to a new type of Maths proved to be a boon in disguise for him.

“Doing Maths at that level, revealed the beauty of Mathematics. It wasn’t memorising formulas, learning how to cram stuff in my head, but it was understanding Maths and what it does at the higher level,” Muneshwer highlighted.

That’s where the love for Maths was birthed.

“I think Maths is art,” he said, “Art is a way you think about life and it is something that requires imagination and when I look at Maths and the things that it can do- especially by describing something so complex with just a few letters and symbols- I feel the same.”

But his sheer love for Mathematics was not what caused him to cop his recent award.

Rajiv advanced: “I didn’t expect it really. I thought I would do well but not to this level because there are a lot of people in Trinidad that are really good at Maths.”

Last year, he made the CAPE Regional Merit List for Pure Mathematics- Unit One. This list shows the top 10 students for a particular subject in the Caribbean region and Rajiv was fifth.

The entire lot that bested him came from Trinidad and he believes that because he knew that there were people ahead of him, he pushed himself that much harder. And in the end, it paid off.

Aside from his math-loving tendencies, he was also the Head Prefect at Queen’s College. During his tenure, he strived for many things for the student benefit, according to him.

“On a bigger level, I tried to fight for the students.”

He helped craft a constitution for the establishment of a Students’ Council, lobbied government ministers for assistance in areas within the school that needed improvement- like the infamous playing field and for the schools feeding programme to be implemented in QC.

“One of my fondest memories was getting all the students in the school to sign a petition we sent directly to President David Granger,” he said fondly. This was to request assistance in improving school life.

Another time, he and of senior prefects, accompanied by the school’s headteacher, visited Minister of Public Service, Rupert Roopnarine to also ask for scholarships for students. That’s because he knows that this is a sore point in college, with almost all students competing for scholarships.

He also dabbled in debating for local civil society organisation, RISE. These were all things that excited him.

At the juncture where he has to decide on the way forward, the young man related that he wants to be a civil engineer because he wants to correct the many infrastructural problems he sees in Guyana. Oh, and an electrical engineer too.

More personally, he shared that his family store got burned down once because of faulty electrical wiring and with it went a plethora of memories and treasured items. And then a family member’s house collapsed because of poor work.

Also, he said: “I want to do it because I have a passion for helping people and this is helping people.”

And even after pursuing these careers, he said, “After all of that, one day I’d like to be a politician- not to make money but to actually change something for the better because when I die I want to be looked back at as someone who did something great, especially for this country.”

The next step that he will take is to move to the United States of America (USA) to study because he believes tomorrow’s technology lies there, and he’d want to bring that back to Guyana.

Another reason for wanting to go there is because he wants to study how the Americans built a society on heroes- their founding fathers.

In his opinion, “It keeps the morale and the spirit in them at all times. The constitution and the declaration of Independence are embers that keep burning on and on for them.”

And coming back to Guyana, he noted that he’d like to be a hero someday. A hero that unifies his people and helps effect some positive change.

With the Math award in the bag, he is aiming to go overseas and conquer that too, before returning to Guyana and be a hero!

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