GUYANA has retained the title as one of the most decorated countries at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Regional Awards Ceremony, after winning six prizes at the 2021 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) awards and three prizes at the 2021 Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) awards.
The awards won by Guyana included Most Outstanding CAPE student and Most Outstanding CSEC Student, which were won, respectively, by Queen’s College students Samuel Haynes and Zaynab Shaffie.
Haynes copped the award after having attained nine grade ones at the 2021 CAPE, while Shaffie attained 18 Grade Ones and two Grade Two at the 2021 CSEC exams.
Also for yet another year, Guyana won the awards for both CSEC and CAPE School of the Year. This award went to Queen’s College.
The other Guyanese CAPE Awardees were St Stanislaus College’s Abdul Subhan,who won the 2021 Most Outstanding Performance in History, and Bishops’ High School’s Crystal Benjamin, who was third place in the 2021 Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) CAPE Accounting Award.
For CSEC, QC students Roshni Samaroo, Sarena Razak and Riley Nurse won the 2021 Most Outstanding Performance in Humanities Student, Most Outstanding Performance in Technical Vocational Education and ACCA CSEC Accounting Awards.
Another student, 17-year-old Naresh Jagnanan of the Essequibo Islands Secondary School, won the Most Outstanding Performance in Business, a first for the school.
Saalih Rahim of the I.S.A Islamic School also won one of the 2021 ACCA CSEC Accounting Awards.
The official ceremony for the event was held in the British Virgin Islands, however, respective countries attended the event virtually, with the Guyanese awards presentation being hosted at the Conference room of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), on Thursday.
Delivering remarks during the ceremony, CXC Registrar Dr Wayne Wesley commended the awardees for showing an exceptional level of determination and creativity to not only excel in their various areas, but also to do so at a trying time given the situations brought upon the world by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“These students would have been demonstrating resilience, tenacity and will power to succeed against all odds. The COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption that it has caused has not prevented them from giving their best. We are proud that we are in a position to honour the hard work and dedication of these students,” Dr. Wesley remarked.
He added: “Awardees, you have started a journey of preservation and excellence, therefore, go with our blessing [s], knowing the levels you have achieved, the determination you have demonstrated and commitment you have shown have laid the foundation for a bright future.”
Dr Wesley also spoke of CXC’s five-year strategic plan, which the institution is looking to utilise to improve practices and holistically transform the Region’s education system, with emphasis on an e-transformation framework.
Aside from Guyana, students from Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Grenada also copped awards this year.
Dominicans, Jason Joseph and Tana Valmond also copped awards for the most outstanding performances by a male and by a female student at the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) examinations.
