PRETHA Smith had a double formula for this year’s Common Entrance Examination: She studied and she prayed. And the formula worked for the deeply religious 11-year-old student from Wesley Hall Primary School, who scored the fifth highest mark overall in this year’s examination.
“I feel blessed and proud by the grace of God,” she quietly said as her classmates screamed and danced around her in jubilation.
Pretha, who is involved in the church choir and the dance ministry at the Collymore Rock Church of the Nazarene, said she found the English examination very easy. She scored 99 in English, 99 in Mathematics, and an A in Composition, for a converted score of 249.96A. And she said this was the first step towards her goal of becoming a doctor.
Her mother, Petal Barclay-Smith, could not contain her joy when she found out that Pretha had passed for Harrison College. “This is an awesome experience. It is no surprise to me. God revealed this to me eight days before the Common Entrance Exam. He told me that Pretha would be among the top 10, and I give praises.”
Smith did not tell her daughter about the dream until the exam was over. “When I went to pick her up, I told her what God had revealed to me, and she said, ‘Mummy, He told me the same thing,’” Smith said, laughing and crying at the same time.
Also confident that Pretha would do well was her teacher, Esther Wilkinson. She describes her top student as “pleasant and dedicated.”  “I have had her for two years, and she came first every term. She is very meticulous and thorough, and she aspires to greatness,” Wilkinson said.
When contacted from Guyana, Barclay-Smith said Pretha (correct spelling) is the Head Girl of her school, and that she is very disciplined and persistent with her schoolwork.  She also prays and reads the Bible daily, her mother said, adding that God has truly blessed her.
A former Guyanese journalist, Barclay-Smith is now Communications Specialist of PBS Communications Inc, Barbados, while her hubby and Pretha’s father, Ryan Smith, is an  Environmental Officer with the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
Her parents are veteran journalist, Mr. George Barclay of the Guyana Chronicle, and Mrs. Mary Barclay, former Matron at the Regional Education Programme for Animal Health Assistants (REPAHA Guyana). (Reprinted from the Barbados Nation with additional reportage from the Guyana Chronicle)