Guyana on top again

Guyana in the past few years has been noted for producing the top student at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), and cannot be more proud in securing the accolade again this year.

Anuradha Dev of Queen’s College has made her parents, school, teachers and most importantly her country proud by not only topping the Caribbean, but also emerging as the best science student in the region.

Dev, who throughout her school years has been a name synonymous with excellence, had also topped the country at this year’s CSEC. She was also the top student at the National Grade Six Examinations. Indeed, her recent achievements are worthy of high praise as she has kept the Golden Arrowhead flying high both in Guyana and the Caribbean.

The aspiring psychiatrist eased past her competitors, fully satisfying the established criteria of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) for the award of the best overall student in the region. In order to be eligible for this award, students had to obtain grade ones in eight subjects, including English A, Mathematics, a foreign language, a subject in the area of humanity, as well as one science subject.

Candidates were also required to obtain a grade one in either a business subject, a subject in the field of technical and vocational studies or one in the realm of the creative and expressive arts. Apart from this, they also had to have two additional subjects, either in the area of foreign languages, humanities, the sciences, business, technical and vocational studies or the creative and expressive arts. Unlike the general perception, students who obtain 15 and more subjects do not automatically qualify for this coveted prize. Students must fit the earlier mentioned criteria for consideration and in cases where they qualify and their grades are the same, the council’s adjudicators would examine the raw scores of the candidates to determine the winner of the top prize.

Dev, who secured grade one passes in agriculture science (double award), biology, Caribbean History, Chemistry, English A, English B, Geography, Information Technology, Integrated Science, Mathematics, Physics, Social Studies, Spanish, Electronic Document Preparation and management, and Human and Social Biology, had amply satisfied the criteria and perhaps had made the adjudicators’ work a little easier.

Guyana has now won the top award for the fifth time in six years and the Best Science Award in the Caribbean for six consecutive years.

The announcement by Education Minister Shaik Baksh on Friday was most refreshing as Mariesa Jagnanan, also of Queen College, was adjudged the best business student, and the success stories did not end there. Nathan Indarsingh, another Queen’s College student, wrote the best short story – a prize Guyana has captured for the first time.

These achievements undoubtedly have enabled Guyana to maintain its rightful place in the Caribbean, and speak of an education sector that has been making commendable progress over the years.

The 2007/ 2008 United Nations Human Development report has ranked Guyana among the top developing countries in the education index. The report placed Guyana 37th in the world, third in the Caribbean after Cuba and Barbados, and second in South America after Argentina.

Guyana’s overall pass rate at CSEC counting grades one to three has moved from 22.1 per cent in 1992 to 64.4 per cent in 2011. Though there is still room for much improvement, the pass rates in English A and Mathematics have also improved creditably in the past 19 years. In 1992, the pass rate in Mathematics was 18.36 per cent compared to 30.35 per cent in 2011; in English A, the pass rate jumped from 9.82 per cent in 1992 to 60.82 per cent in 2011.

The number of candidates sitting the examinations has also improved tremendously, moving from 5,185 in 1992 to 12,731 in 2011; so too the number of subject entries for the examinations which has increased from 20,616 in 1992 to 70,781 in 2011.

More teachers are being trained; government is spending some Gy$1.5 billion on school feeding programmes and some Gy$300 million on a school uniform programme.

These are just some areas of development, which overall indicate that the billions of dollars government has been investing in the education sector, year after year, have been bearing fruit.