St. Therese’s Primary School Graduation

Jul 19, 2010 News

NEW AMSTERDAM, BERBICE – Overall performance of students at the National Grade Six Assessment shows improvement in Mathematics and Science respectively but English recorded a drop. This disclosure was made by the Principal Personnel Officer in Region Six Shelton Daniels as he presented the main address during the graduation exercise at the St. Therese’s Primary School in New Amsterdam on Friday.

From left: Shelton Daniels, the top ten students and Head Teacher Sherlock Blair

According to him, both public and private schools have been working towards an improved standard of education. Statistics are revealing that Government’s efforts to boost human resources, the physical outlay of the learning environment and resources needed to engage students in the learning process have been reaping success.

Daniels cited the Radio Instruction Programme as being a positive move for the children. He also spoke of the Literacy Unit within the Education Ministry which targets students who failed to achieve the 50 percent pass mark. Along with this initiative, there is the six-week August vacation project aimed at helping those children.

The Officer emphasized that nothing comes easily and hard work and sacrifice are a good combination to achieve success. This message must be given to children at an early age starting from the home.

The introduction of internet has served well in terms of research and communication but there is a negative aspect whereby many children no longer experience the benefits using libraries. He even alluded to the kind of conversation 11 and 10-year old children engage in and activities they are permitted to attend without parental supervision. In addition he touched on distasteful lyrics hitting today’s society, “which speak of guns, sexual fantasies, discriminatory practices against men and women and in the worst case scenario, the physical description of a woman’s body have all formed part of the kind of music our youths have found interesting.” These negative aspects cannot be ignored.

In presenting the report for the institution, Head Teacher Sherlock Blair called the September 2009 to July 2010 period a challenging time. A period with criticism from all angles, but despite that, he and his team of dedicated teachers along with a vibrant parent/teacher association were able to clear all hurdles and remain standing.

The school has an 846 student population and of this, 417 are boys. Twenty-five of the 30 teachers are women. This year, 158 students sat the National Grade Six Assessment and 128 were placed at discreet secondary schools – 43 attained marks which will take them to senior secondary institutions and 85 were placed at junior secondary schools. Thirty would continue their education at primary tops (secondary part of a primary school).

Top performer for Region Six is Kessa Kendall, an 11-year old who scored 540 marks and earned a spot at Queens College after spending six years at the St. Therese’s Primary. Kendall was followed by Shabana Usman with 530 marks and Nadia Nandkumar 527, both got places at the Bishop’s High School. Shukawn Andrews and Omotayo Smith both scored 520 and were awarded places at the St. Stanislaus College. Four students were sent to St. Rose’s High – LaTanya Downer and Bibi Mobarakhali both achieved 517 marks, Radica Singh 515 and Michelle Williams 512. Ederle Stephen with 505 marks gained a spot at the New Amsterdam Secondary (New Amsterdam Multilateral).

The National Grade Two Assessment recorded 120 students from St. Therese’s Primary with 50 percent passes. While the higher level of the same assessment – Grade Four gained 51 percent passes from the 139 entrants.

The Head Teacher reminded parents that education is compulsory and success weighs heavily on parental involvement. Blair lauded the Region’s Education Officer Shafiran Bhajan and her team for the support and guidance given. He expressed gratitude to the Guyana Sugar Corporation, Church of Christ and the Guyana Power and Light along with other entities for their contributions to the institution.

In reflecting on the past six years, an emotional Kessa Kendall said how grateful she is to her teachers and her mother Kathy Kendall. “I couldn’t have done it without you.” According to her she was a straight ‘A’ student who was always above 90 percent.