AMONG the top performers who were awarded yesterday at the National Award Ceremony for Outstanding Performance, were four Guyanese students who copped four of

the eight prizes given by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) for their performance at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examinations.
Abram Zuil Secondary School Student, Sarah Hakh is this year’s most outstanding candidate overall in the entire Caribbean Region. Additionally, Tamasha Maraj from The Bishops’ High School is the most outstanding candidate in Business Education while Deowattie Narine, also from The Bishops’ High School is the most outstanding in Science Studies and Karran Singh from St. Roses High School is the most outstanding candidate in Technical Vocational Education.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand highlighted that for seven consecutive years, since 2006, Guyana has been topping the Caribbean at CSEC.
She noted that throughout the history of the country, the top students have been coming from particular schools in Georgetown. However, she said this is now changing because there are trained teachers all across the country.
She pointed out that currently in Essequibo they have 100 percent trained teachers and this is because there is a training college on the Essequibo Coast so that teachers, and people who want to become teachers, can be trained right at home rather than have to go in Georgetown to attend the Cyril Potter College of Education.
Manickchand emphasized that years after this started, a student from Essequibo is now emerging on top. She added that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government would like to continue in this way to deliver education and to ensure that everybody all across Guyana has access to education and other social services.
However, she related that they do have more work to do and that they are aware that there are other things which can be done to make the education system better.
“… we want to promise you that, as a government, we will continue to put in the effort, we will continue to make the investments, we will continue to demand excellence from our teachers and ministry staff and we will continue to do what we need to do to make sure our children get the best education but we require partners in this journey,” she said.
The minister reiterated that the government can train teachers, offer uniforms and deliver free text books and exercise books, but that parents and even students themselves will also have to put in an effort.
She stressed that the duties of parents cannot be supplanted by any government.
“Parents have a huge role to play in the development of their children, in making sure that their children get the best life possible by accessing an education…” she stated.
Students from various areas of education were awarded at yesterday’s ceremony, including top performers at the National Grade Six Assessment, top CSEC performers from junior and senior secondary schools, outstanding students from the Carnegie School of Home Economics and top performers from the Guyana Technical Education Examination (GTEE).
In addition, there were special awards given to three CSEC candidates, two of whom were partially blind and the other who was blind.
The New Market Primary School in Region 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne) received an award for being the most improved Primary School while the Fort Wellington Secondary School was deemed the most improved junior secondary school and Saint Stanislaus College, the most improved senior secondary school.