Amlata Persaud, QC win top CXC awards
By Miranda La Rose

Queen's College (QC) student Amlata Persaud copped the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) award for being the most outstanding candidate in the Caribbean at the May/June sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) (previously known as the CXC exams).

Persaud also won the award as the most outstanding candidate in the humanities. Delivering the vote of thanks at the double ceremony to mark the opening of the thirtieth meeting of the CXC and presentation of awards for outstanding students at the last sitting of the CSEC held at the Main Street Plaza Hotel on Monday evening, she requested a special school holiday to celebrate the achievements of local students at the recent examinations.

Queen's College copped the school award as well as two other regional awards. QC student Kevin Persaud (who is not in the country but who was represented by his mother) won the prize for the most outstanding candidate in science. And Leah Bovell, also of QC, was awarded the prize for the most outstanding candidate in business education.

Elder Jimenez of Sacred Heart College in Belize was presented the award for the most outstanding candidate in visual arts: craft; Robyn Knaggs of Holy Name Convent in Trinidad and Tobago was awarded most outstanding candidate in visual arts: art; Sheramie Ceballo of St Joseph's Convent in Trinidad and Tobago won the award for being the most outstanding candidate in short story writing; Gary Baugh of Rusea's High School in Jamaica copped the award for being the most outstanding candidate in technical/vocational subjects (Industrial Arts/Technology and Home Economics). The students received plaques and cash prizes.

Chairman of CXC Sir Keith Hunte, who was one of several speakers to congratulate the awardees, presented the award to Amlata Persaud. Prime Minister Sam Hinds had the honour of presenting the regional awards for subject areas to the other outstanding students.

In brief remarks prior to the presentation, CXC Registrar, Dr Lucy Steward, said that the selection was not easy. Many students across the region "did exceedingly well" she said, noting that ten candidates sat 11 subjects and four obtained grades one to three in all subjects. Amlata and Kevin Persaud earned grade ones in 11 subjects. Across the region 128 candidates sat ten subjects and 54 got grades one to three in all the subjects.

Steward also noted that in 21 of the 34 subject areas examined for Guyana more than 60% of the candidates examined attained grades one to three. Among the 152 candidates across the region who took seven or more subjects and were short-listed for the regional award six were Guyanese. Five attained seven or more grade one awards. Thirteen of the 66 candidates short-listed for the art award were Guyanese as well as five of the 41 for the science award.

Congratulating the students for their exemplary performance, Education Minister, Dr Dale Bisnauth, who declared the meeting officially open said that "young people like them across the region is our hope for a bright, better, prosperous integrated region in which the prejudices, fears and suspicion of the present are transcended."

Describing the occasion as a time for celebration, Bisnauth said that the CXC marking its twenty-sixth anniversary should convince the cynics in the region that a regional project could work. He added that efforts and standards could find acceptance regionally and it "is not really true that we cannot accept and value our own."

Travelling across the region, he said, one wonders if any good thing at all is happening in education especially when one reads the newspapers and editorial comments. "This is an area, of course, where everybody is an expert," he remarked.

Stating that the role of education in today's world was being linked more often with economic purposes, Bisnauth said that it was a human investment. He said that education was economically essential but a good society could not accept that education was primarily in the service of economics.

The education process, he said has a larger social, political cultural and aesthetic role and a bearing on social stability. For these reasons, the Caribbean region must aim to provide opportunities for access at least to a good primary and secondary education.

Most outstanding candidate in the Caribbean at the recent Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations, Amlata Persaud of Queen's College, Guyana (seated at centre of head table) and other awardees (standing) with CXC Chairman Sir Keith Hunte (seated at right) and Education Minister Dr Dale Bisnauth (seated at left) after the awards ceremony held at the Main Street Plaza Hotel on Monday. The awardees from left are Cary Baugh, Rusea's High School, Jamaica; Leah Bovell, Queen's College, Guyana; Patricia Persaud mother of awardee Kevin Persaud of Queen's College, Guyana; Queen's College principal Wendel Roberts; Sheramie Ceballo, St Joseph's Convent, Trinidad and Tobago; Roblyn Knaggs of Holy Name Convent, Trinidad and Tobago; Elder Jimenez of Sacred Heart College, Belize. (Photo by Aubrey Crawford)