-says that while there is room for improvement, it is interesting to note that good passes came from right across the country

PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar last Friday at a media briefing extended congratulations to the Guyanese students who recently sat the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations while noting that top performance was not limited to one region but came from right across Guyana including some schools in the interior regions.

According to the President, the results of this year’s examination were much better than it was many years ago. He noted that for a while now it has been showing that investments in the education sector have been paying off.

While extending his appreciation and acknowledgement to parents and teachers of the secondary institutions, he emphasised that one of the interesting things to note is that good passes were recorded from right across Guyana. “If you look at the top 100 students, they came from right across Guyana including some of the schools in the interior areas as well. And that is something that was unheard of 20 years ago where almost all the passes came from about four or five schools in Georgetown,” President Ramotar stressed.

As such, the Head of State is contending that no longer will parents have to sacrifice to send their children from the “countryside” to attend schools in Georgetown, which they deem as higher ranked schools because now these schools are doing exceptionally well too.
“I know that there’s a lot of room for improvement and we’re not satisfied completely with the grades but compared to the past it has been a significant improvement and we hope that we can build on it. It’s very pleasing to look at that right across the area, we’ve had significant improvement in like Santa Rosa school in Region One, Aurora Secondary, Abramsville Secondary, Anna Regina Secondary, Johanna Cecelia Secondary, Zeeburg, Sewartville, Leonora, West Demerara Secondary, Patentia. They’ve all done much better than in recent times,” the President noted.

The President reiterated his point that this broad based performance emanating from all regions in the country is a “cut away from this idea that everybody has to get into one or two schools in the city.” As a result, he is of the opinion that parents now will feel much more “confident” and “comfortable” with their children going to different schools, particularly those in their regions.
The recent release of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) results and performance report revealed that schools receiving more than 80 per cent passes at this year’s examination included; Anna Regina Multilateral (Region 2); West Demerara Secondary, Zeeburg Secondary, Leguan Secondary (Region 3); President’s College and Annandale Secondary (Region 4); J. C. Chandisingh Secondary (Region 6); Mackenzie High School (Region 10); Queen’s College, The Bishops’ High, St. Joseph’s High, St. Stanislaus College, St. Roses High, Central High and Brickdam Secondary (Georgetown).
Schools receiving between 65 to 79 per cent pass rate included; Christ Church Secondary, New Amsterdam Multilateral, Berbice High, Abram’s Zuil Secondary, Diamond Secondary, Rosignol Secondary, Tagore Memorial High, Mahaicony Secondary, Skeldon Line Path Secondary, Three Miles Secondary, Essequibo Islands Secondary and Covent Garden Secondary.

(By Ravin Singh)