-ABC Academy Sariah Singh places 2nd, third spot shared by Angelie Persaud, Carol Hopkinson, of CV Nunes and Regma Primary, respectively.

TERRON ALLEYNE
Terron Alleyne of Regma Primary School in Linden (Region 10 – Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) has gained the top position in the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) with a score of 537 marks.
Seventeen thousand three hundred and ninety two (17,392) candidates were entered for this assessment, which was written on 20 April and 21 April 2011 and for which the highest possible score obtainable was 551.
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CAROL HOPKINSON
Carol Hopkinson of Regma Primary School with 534 marks shared the third spot with Angelie Persaud of Region 2
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TERYKA MOHABIR
Teryka Mohabir of Regma Primary School copped the sixth position with 533 arks
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SARIAH SINGH
An aspiring doctor, Sariah Singh of the ABC Academy credits her hard work and mother’s support for her success at the National Grade Six Assessment Examinations.
The 11 year-old gained 536 marks to secure the country’s number two position in the examinations, whose results were released by the Ministry of Education yesterday.
“I studied very hard, had late nights and I think I deserve this position. Sir did a lot of stuff with us during classes and I worked very hard,” she said.
Commenting on some of the sacrifices she had to make, she said, “I had to give up television, playing, reading novels. It was work, work, work, all the time.”
Her favourite subjects are Science and Mathematics and she thought she did well in those subjects and the others in the examinations. She is aspiring to become a doctor since she has an interest in helping to make people feel better.
She said her mother always supported her during studies and giving her tests to do as a means of helping her prepare for the examination.
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ANGELIE PERSAUD
Eleven-year-old Angelie Persaud of C.V. Nunes Primary School on the Essequibo Coast has copped the third place nationally at the Grade Six Examination.
Headmistress of the school Ms. Sybil Brandon said she is extremely happy with Angelie performance at the examination.
In an interview with the Chronicle, at the school Angeliesaid she feels very proud and elated upon hearing the good news.
She said: “I had the feelings that I would do well.”
The student who wants to attend Queen’s College in Georgetown said her success at the examination came about because of hard and dedicated work at school.
Angelie said she is very grateful to her parents, Rosita and Ravindra, and teachers of the C.V.Nunes Primary School for her success.
She said each night she studied from 7pm to 8pm under the watchful eyes of her mother, who is also a Senior Mistress at the C.V Nunes Primary. She said during the examination she increased her study hours to 9 pm each night.
Angelic said she also took extra lessons from Ms Sybil Monroe of Henrietta each school day from 3 pm to 4 pm in the afternoons and on Saturdays from 9 – 2 pm.
According to Angelie, her challenge at school was to always do good at examinations because she had to compete with other brilliant students.
Her advice to other students is to study hard and pray and have self-confidence.
Angeliesaid she wants to become a cardiologist. She is also very religious and attends Mandir regularly where she learns to play various musical instruments.
Mother of the child, Ms Rosita Persaud said she is very happy, excited and proud of her daughter’s performance. She has promised to buy Angeliea very expensive watch or anything else she desires.
Rosita told the Chronicle that her daughter always did well in classes over the years.
According to the mother, she never pressured her to study but ensured that her study hours became a routine one, which worked out well.
Her husband Ravindra Persaud is a NIS Inspector at Bartica. She said the good news was told to him via telephone and he said he is very happy and proud and always knew that she will do well.
Angelie’s class teacher Ms Nikita Blucher said she is proud.
According to the teacher, Angelie is a very good worker who she knew would be in the top 10 of the country.
The student who is very quiet loves to read.
Region Two Chairman Mr. Alli Baksh who has led Region Two to climb to the top of the education ladder said he is very proud of Angelie’s performance and once again Region Two has excelled in the field of education.
The Chairman in congratulating the headmistress and teachers of the school said government every year is investing billions of dollars in the education field to give students opportunities to pursue their dreams and careers.
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SARAH DAVID-LONGE
Upon hearing the news of her grades, Sarah David-Longe from Hadfield Street, Werk-en -Rust was brimming with smiles.
According to the 11-year old, who shared third position with 534 marks, her achievement was only possible through her hard efforts, prayers and through the support, she received from her family.
“I am very happy and absolutely elated at the scores that I achieved because a lot of hard work and studying went into my success I want to thank God, my parents and Mr. Success for working with me,” she said.
As to how she prepared for the exams, the excited student explained that she balanced her academic studies with lots of exercise and rest as well as maintaining a healthy eating habit.
Longe emphasized too that with hard work and constant prayers, anything is possible.
She said, “My advice to those who are writing any exam is to keep studying, if you put your mind to it you will get there.”
With aspirations of becoming a Lawyer one day, Sarah David-Longe plans to attend Queen’s College where she will continue to work hard to reach greater heights.
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THALIA BAEZA MILAN
Coming to Guyana from Cuba as a four year old, Thalia Baeza Milan, who copped 533 marks at the National Grade Six Assessment Examination to secure a joint 6th place, wants to become an archeologist.
“I studied and to me, I found the examinations easy,” said 11-year-old Thalia, a student of School of the Nations. “Some questions were hard, some were easy, but I found them to be ok,” she said. Thalia said her favourite subject are Mathematics and English Language.
“I had to study alone because English is my second language and my mom could not help me because she [does not speak English very well],” Thalia said. “Miss Semple, my teacher, had to help me with some extra lessons every day except Sundays,” she said. “I like reading books but I had to give it up until I was done with [the examinations],” she said.
She said history made her interested in the career. “Digging up things from the past and helping to make the future better, I find it very interesting,” she said, adding that she watched a lot of National Geographic programmes on television.
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KAREEM ABDOOL
Sharing sixth position with 533 marks, Kareem Abdool from Success Elementary (East Bank Demerara) explained that he felt “shocked” by his achievement.
“I am a little shocked though it was not very hard to prepare for the exams,” he said.
According to the 11- year old, who resides in West Ruimveldt, he was encouraged and supported throughout his preparation for the exams by his parents and Sir Wilfred Success.
He said, “Thanks to Sir Success, God, and my parents who encouraged me to study hard so that I could achieve what I did.”
In the wake of his academic success Abdool, encouraged other students to maintain a balance in academic and extra curricular activities along with hard work.
“Study hard and you will achieve your goals,” he imparted.
Meanwhile, principal of the Success Elementary School, Mr. Wilfred Success highlighted that both Longe and Abdool always placed in the top 20 during the prepatory exams leading up to the NGSA.
He proudly explained, “They always did really well even in the mock exams , the preparation was intense as we would  begin at 07:00 hours  and  go until 15:30 hours in the afternoon.”
According to Mr. Success, he is extremely proud of the School’s performance in light of the fact that it was opened in September of 2010.
“Dare to dream, keep the dream alive and strive hard to achieve it,” he encouraged.
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NARISSA PERSAUD
The National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) results are out, and Leonora Primary School, West Coast Demerara has again featured amongst the top performing schools at the examinations this year.

This time round, the starring student doing her school proud is 12-year-old Narissa Persaud, of Anna Catherina, also on the West Coast Demerara, Region Three, who, in a very tight national race, scored 532 of a maximum 537 marks, clinching 9th place on the list of top national achievers.  She is now comfortably placed in a position to get the school of her choice – Queen’s College, and to one day become themedical doctor – a career she has long admired.

When the Guyana Chronicle visited her school yesterday, Narissa, who was all in glee told of being very confident when doing her tests and, with an air of maturity, had words of advice for others taking examinations.  “I was confident and had no fear, because the minute you become nervous and scared, you are likely to do bad,” she said.

And putting first things first, she immediately proceeded to acknowledge God blessings on her and “First of all, I want to thank the Lord, then my parents for their support  and guidance; I want to thank my teachers – Ms Latchmin Gopal and  Ms Relinda Williams; my head teacher Ms. Margaret Mc Kend for her encouragement and all others who supported me.

Nariss appeared somewhat emotional when she mentioned Ms. Gopaul’s name, since that teacher, with an enviable reputation of having consistently churned out large numbers of top performers at the NGSA (previously known as the Common Entrance Examination) went into retirement last May – just one month after the students would have written their examinations.  She is now succeeded by Ms. Relinda Williams.

Asked how she felt on receiving the news of having topped her school, Narissa – a very warm and pleasant, but confident and very vocal replied: “I was happy, excited, but I knew all along that I would have done well.  For me, it was like writing a normal test at school.”

And about her career choice, she said what motivated her to want to become a doctor was her love for science.  “My favourite subject at school was science.  I was fascinated by it and of course my desire to help people who are sick.”

The first of two children for her parents – Vijay Persaud, operates a trucking (Canter) service and Mona Persaud – a housewife, Narissa says she would like her little brother to follow in her footsteps.

With a record of good performance throughout her school life to date, she was always top at her exams in school, her mother modestly acknowledged. She  was also credited with the ability to balance her school work with play, but kept focused on her school work and used the school’s library to advantage, complemented by the National Library in Georgetown.  Her mother had kudos for the school for putting in place such an important facility, noting that it was a great plus, in addition to the student friendly school environment at Leonora Primary School.

Narissa has always demonstrated her winning streak with her excellent performance at a recent debating competition (in the Primary category) on Disability, conducted at the National Library in Georgetown.  She is also currently preparing to participate in DIGICEL’s reading competition, the preliminaries of which would be held next Wednesday.
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EDMUND HENRY
Grabbing the tenth position with 531 marks at the National Grade 6 Exams Emund Henry a student of the New Guyana School, said he is elated to have achieved this position.

Henry noted that although his exams were a bit challenging his success came only with sacrifices and hard work.
He said his expectations were high but he had no idea that his prayers would have allowed him to soar this far.”I was expecting to be in the top hundred but it came as a surprise to me to be in the top ten”.
In addition he thanked his teachers, parents and guardians who supported him both academically and emotionally.
The 12-year old whose favourite subject is Mathematics is aspiring to be one of the greatest doctors that Guyana will ever see.
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SHAFEEK RAYMAN
SHAFEEK Rayman, a student of Dharmic Rama Krishna on Barr Street, Kitty was yesterday overjoyed when the Guyana Chronicle broke the news to him that he scored 10th place.
He said he was very happy to have heard the news. “I worked very hard and stayed up very late at nights. I didn’t watch too much TV,” he said in all smiles yesterday.
Rayman, 10, attended the said school from the nursery level and was aspiring to go to Queen’s College.
The School’s Headmistress Seetagie Coonjah said of Rayman: “I knew he would have done it. I was expecting this. I was waiting for a call.”