GUYANA has won five of the eight Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) awards for the best regional performances at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examination (CSEC).
*Yogeeta Persaud of Anna Regina Secondary School, on Essequibo Coast, got the award for overall outstanding achievement.

*Rafena Mustapha, of Saraswati Vidya Niketan, on West Coast Demerara, was awarded for being the most outstanding in humanities.

*Cecil Cox, of Queen’s College (QC) in Georgetown, was recognised for being most outstanding in sciences.

*Sasha Woodroffe, also of QC got her recognition for being most outstanding in business studies and Zimeena Rasheed, the most outstanding in technical/vocational studies.

Education Minister Priya Manickchand made the announcement on Thursday at a press conference in her ministry’s Brickdam office.

She declared that the achievement is a continuation of the trajectory that Guyana has been on in winning regional awards over the years, particularly for the best overall student achievement.
Manickchand attributed the attainment of the excellent performances by the students to the investments made by the Government of Guyana in the schools across the country and, more widely, in the education sector.

Extremely pleased
“We are extremely pleased with these results. We believe ourselves to be blessed but we also believe that we have more work to do; we want all eight of those awards,” she asserted.
Pointing out that the national results of this examination were announced in August of this year, she noted that, at that time, the disclosure of the regional awards could not have been made since CXC has a process which includes allowing for appeals of grades.
Manickchand said that, repeatedly, children from all over Guyana, including the remote areas are doing well, as a result of the provision and delivery of equitable services.
She assured that the Government of Guyana remains committed to the development of the education sector and continues to invest, significantly, in the enhancement of the quality provided to all of its students.
Manickchand expressed gratitude to the parents of all the candidates who wrote the examination this year, particularly the five students who received the regional awards.
She also took the opportunity to thank the teachers who worked beyond the call of duty to get the students to the point where they are poised to contribute to the further development of Guyana.

The Minister said, within the last decade, Guyana has been, consistently, winning awards from CXC because of the excellent performance of the students who ha

ve been dominating three categories over the years: best overall science award, best business studies award and most outstanding in the region award.

The other three awards are for most outstanding candidate in visual arts and two-dimensional work; most outstanding candidate in visual arts; three-dimensional work and most outstanding candidate in short story writing and were won by other students from the Region.
In 2012, Guyana won four of the eight regional awards awarded by CXC for the outstanding regional performances.
The Education Ministry, in a press release, encouraged all students in Guyana to continue applying themselves to the core principles and practices of the subjects they study, to achieve higher quality passes at the CSEC level.