…says results motivate him to achieve more
By Lisa Hamilton
Despite their proximity from the coastland where there is generally greater access to education, several hinterland students performed exceptionally at that Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination.
Receiving 9 Grade Ones and 3 Grade Twos is Keron Williams, all the way from Port Kaituma Secondary. Meanwhile, Ackeem Williams of Three Miles Secondary received 6 Grade Ones and 4 Grade Twos. Laura Carvalho of Paramakatoi Secondary received 5 Grade Ones and 2 Grade Threes while Ashley Rodrigues of St. Ignatius Secondary copped 7 Grade Ones and 3 Grade Twos.
Reaching out to Keron Williams, the Village Voice News learned that when he first received his results, Mathematics and English, for him, were marked as ungraded. This concerned him but, following the review of the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC), he was pleased with the changes.
“Upon hearing this, at that moment, I can remember the sigh of relief and the exhilaration that I felt and I was so happy and excited for that. Recently, I became aware I am the top student for the hinterland region and I am very much overwhelmed to know this and it’s very encouraging to me so that I can keep pushing to achieve even greater things,” he said, adding:
“Many people think that hinterland students cannot perform well or that your success at CSEC is determined by which secondary school you attend, but I would just like to tell people out there that that isn’t the case…all that determines what you do is how you allocate your time, how you study and how you perform by yourself.”
Williams said that the preparation period was difficult during the transition from in-class to online teaching. However, he remained resilient and relied on the assistance of his friends and family and is now studying at the University of Guyana to become a family doctor.
At the announcement of the results on Wednesday, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand said that there is not yet a full analysis of the total pass rate of students in the hinterland because this information is still being received from CXC.
“I don’t believe things like that should be hidden. I think, as a country, we have to work towards making it better and so we won’t be hiding that information from you, we just don’t have it right now,” she explained.
The Minister also fielded questions regarding the ways in which COVID-19 has affected education delivery to hinterland regions where gaps were already pre-existing. Manickchand began by underscoring that countries around the world, even developed countries, are experiencing challenges with the delivery of education during the pandemic.
With the rapid onset, she said that Guyana has had to refashion its education system and is still doing so and making improvements as it learns new means to enhance education delivery.
For Guyana, she said that no one measure will work to address the challenges as they vary across regions and locations. Listing some of the measures utilized thus far, Manickchand highlighted the refashioning of the Guyana Learning Channel; the reopening of schools in a safe way; the provision of more educational information on the radio; the training of teachers on how to teach online; the creation of worksheets for students with no access to the internet; the launch of the NGSA Booster Programme and more.
Meanwhile, she said that the MOE is in the process of creating locally-made videos for the learning channel; will launch a quiz-like platform for students next Friday and will soon be distributing Nursery Home Kits to all nursery school-age children to support their parents at home.
“A large range of things were done and continue to be done,” the Education Minister said. “It hasn’t been easy here or anywhere else but I hope you see that we haven’t thrown up our arms…I will not stand here and tell you that we’re reaching everybody but we’re trying to reach as many as possible by the various means that we have that would be effective.”
