Zainab tops Region 10 CSEC candidates
ASPIRING cardiologist, 16-year-old Mackenzie High School (MHS) student Zainab Abdul_Karim is elated for having emerged top Region Ten (Upper Demerara / Upper Berbice) candidate at the 2011 Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) and among the highest placed 15 in the country.
Interviewed at her Lot 95 Riverside Drive, Watooka, Mackenzie home yesterday after receiving the good news, she expressed her thoughts on the performance.
“This is a gift to my parents, Joshua and Khadijah Karim,” she declared. Following is how the question and answer session with Joe Chapman (JC) of the Guyana Chronicle went:
JC: You have created history by passing 14 subjects at MHS, with 13 grade ones and one grade two. How does it feel?
ZAK: It feels great to actually achieve this and so it’s an exciting time.
JC: Were you surprised at all?
ZAK: Well, I wasn’t surprised but, at the same, I didn’t know how well I was going to do. It was the first time in my life I couldn’t come home to my mom and say: Hey mom, this is what I did. I just said: mom I got everything, twos and ones but I don’t know how many twos and ones. I don’t know which is which, but I know I passed all.
JC:What are your immediate plans?
ZAK: Well I would feel good, if I could get a scholarship to China, because I saw that the Government has about eight scholarships to offer. But if that doesn’t happen I guess I would want to go on to Form Six at Queen’s College and work for a scholarship, most likely, or to go with my aunt in the United States.
JC: Looking back at your Secondary Schools Entrance Examination performance in 2006, what was it like?
ZAK: At SSEE, I also topped Region 10 and was placed 15th in the country. It was the ninth highest grade but a lot of us were tied so I ended up 15th  countrywide.
JC: To whom do you give the credit for helping you perform so well?
ZAK: First, I give full credit to God. Without God, it wouldn’t have been possible. I would not have been here. I wouldn’t have my parents. Second, I have to credit my mother. I really love her for all that she has done. And when you congratulate me, you also think about congratulating my mom, as the one who should be congratulated for her hard work and my dad, for all the sacrifice he has made. Though he has not been with us here, he has always been supporting me, giving me encouragement. The teachers, my best friend Rosanna (Rose), because we have known each other like forever; my family, I can’t forget my uncles who used to come in the middle of the night, from their work, to pick me up from lessons. I just thank each and every person who, actually, put a little help into this. Even if it was just: ‘yes, I think she could make it’, a little belief. I just thank them for all of that.
JC: In 2006, when you were placed at Queen’s College, you left and went overseas and when you returned you went to Mackenzie High. Are there any regrets in going there?

Repeat classes
ZAK: Well, when I came back I went to QC to get a placement but they had a policy that you had to repeat classes and I said no, I can’t repeat a class just to get into a school. Sometimes it is not all about the school. Sometimes it is about who you are and if there are good teachers. You can make it at any school. Yes, at times, I used to regret that I would not have to do so many lessons there. I could have written my subjects in a more flexible way and, maybe, the teachers would have been better. But now I don’t think I have regretted it at all.
JC: When you left in 2006, where did you go and which school did you attend?
ZAK: I attended St Maarten Academy. My father teaches there, so I went there and I returned in 2009.
JC: How was the transition?
ZAK: Being so accustomed to changing schools, it was normal, I went to four different primary schools. But the only difference is when I came back here, the work used to go a bit slower. In Third Form, I had already covered everything they did in Fourth Form, so I never used to do anything. I was laid back but, in Fifth Form, I had to get back up to speed and it was a bit of a problem because, in Third Form, I was getting 100 per cent in, especially, the science subjects.
Meanwhile, Zainab’s grandmother, Mrs. Isha Kadir noted that, since her husband, former People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Parliamentarian and past Mayor of Linden Abdul Kadir, now serving life imprisonment in the United States (U.S.) for conspiring to blow up the fuel depot at John F. Kennnedy Airport, departed, in 2007, the girl’s results were refreshing and she gave thanks to God for Zainab.