THIS year Joshua Mc Arthur, who just turned sixteen years old and attends Queen’s College, came to national attention as he matriculated high school from Grade 10, formerly known as fourth form. He wrote the most subjects at this grade level nationally.

He sat nine subjects and earned Grade Ones in eight of those subjects (Chemistry, English A, Mathematics, Physics, Physical Education & Sports, Technical Drawing, Industrial Technology Mechanical and Industrial Technology Building) and a Grade Two in Geography.

This Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara boy received honourable mention and was present at the Ministry’s announcement of results. He will be going off to the University of Guyana to do Petroleum Engineering.

Joshua’s older sister, Lateisha Mc Arthur is a Guyana scholar having earned second place in the country at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) level in 2024 and recently departed for the University of the West Indies (UWI) to do medicine on a full Government of Guyana scholarship.

Joshua follows on the heels of Yeshua Huston who matriculated from Queen’s College last year (2024) at 15 years old from Grade Nine or third form by doing five subjects but through a private institution rather than through the school. Yeshua is now at the University of Guyana pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and is an avid cricketer who plays under-17 cricket for the Demerara Cricket Club.

Joshua was joined at the release ceremony by Emray St Hill, a fifteen-year-old student from North Georgetown Secondary in Woolford Avenue who wrote six subjects, (English A, Mathematics, Office Administration, Principles of Accounts, Principles of Business and Social Studies), and earned three Grade Ones, two Grade Twos and one Grade Three.
Mark Bandon, a Saint Stanislaus boy, who wrote five subjects and matriculated high school by earning five Grade Twos in English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Integrated Science and Information Technology has decided to pursue studies at the University of Guyana in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

With them at the release ceremony also was David Hackett, a Bishops’ High School boy, who wrote four subjects and earned three Grade Ones in Mathematics, Office Administration and Principles of Business and a Grade Two in Economics. David will be going into fifth form to pursue 16 subjects in Grade 11.

Additionally, 14 children in Guyana wrote three subjects in Grade 10. Three of them earned Grade Ones in all three subjects. They are all of Queen’s College and are Juvell Atherly, 16 years old, who did Mathematics, Physical Education & Sports and Electronic and Data Preparation Management (EDPM), Arya Murli, 15 years old, who did Mathematics, English A and EDPM and Cassidy Singh, 16 years old, who did Mathematics, English A and Physical Education & Sports.

Three hundred and forty-one children from across Guyana’s schools wrote various subjects in Grade 10. Two hundred and thirty-five of them entered for one subject while 86 entered for two subjects and fourteen entered for three subjects. Three students entered for four subjects, and one each for five, six, and nine subjects.

Two hundred and seventy-nine Grade 10 students entered for Mathematics with 271 of those or 97% of them passing with Grades One to Three while 165 of them or 59% earned Grade Ones. One hundred and eleven children wrote English with 100% of them passing the subject with Grades One to Three, with 75 of them or 68% earning Grade Ones.
Electronic and Data Preparation Management saw the next highest number of entries with 12 children writing and all 12 passing with grades one to three with a phenomenal nine of them receiving grade ones.

Those nine were all from Queen’s College and incidentally made up the first batch at this school to sit the subject at Grade 10 under the expert tutelage of Samantha Liverpool, now one of the school’s new Deputy Head teachers. Six children across Guyana wrote Principles of Business (POB), five wrote Physical Education & Sports and others wrote subjects such as Social Studies, Visual Arts, Industrial Technology, Physics and Economics.

Of the eighty-six children who wrote two subjects in Grade 10, 32 of them earned grade ones in both subjects. They are from President’s College: Jewel Park (English A and Agricultural Science) and Christopher Richmond (Mathematics and English), from Saint Stanislaus College, Seyra Mc Pherson (Mathematics and English A ) and Jianna Hopkinson (English A, Human & Social Biology), from St Joseph’s High, all the children who earned Grades Ones in two subjects did so in Mathematics and English A. They are Shivraj Flood, Saskia Grant, Renita James, Isaiah Mc Alman, Gabriella Rodrigues, Alicia Spooner, Princess Stephen, Ricardo Thakur. From Queen’s College, Vishun Basdeo, Kassia Dookie, Sarah Lewis, Kaitlyn Persaud, all of whom did Mathematics and English A and Charisma Etwaroo and Adrian Playter who did Mathematics and Human & Social Biology, Shanee Kesney who did Mathematics and Physical Education & Sports, Makala Glasgow, Fatima Grant, Aditi Joshi, Himanshi Kumar, Obama Prosper, Jahzarra Ramdat and Kelsey Vyphius, all did Mathematics and EDPM. From St Rose’s High all of whom earned grade ones in two subjects did Mathematics and English A and they are Naiara Budhram, Malka David, Samir Rasool, Collin Roberts, Vivek Singh, Samiya Wickham.

These exceptional results in the fourth year of high school, especially after missing all of Grade Six and much of Grade Seven as a result of the COVID-19 school closure, is evidence of a resilient and diverse education system that caters to supporting both children who need more attention as well as to children who are especially talented and are interested in challenging themselves in various fields at an earlier age. These outstanding results also point to a support system in teachers and parents that combine to bring out the best in our children from a variety of schools.

The results are trending upward at every level, and this has been directly attributed to the resources that were made universally available by the Ministry of Education as well as a relaxing of the old rules that saw one fit for all being applied, rather than a system that catered for individual strengths and weaknesses.

Things can only get brighter, and the Ministry of Education is excited at the prospects of individualised teaching and learning that President Irfaan Ali has touted to be rolled out in the next five years. (Ministry of Education)