RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca­s­ookraj@guardian.co.tt

Three stu­dents from San Fer­nan­do TML Pri­ma­ry School have placed in the top eight na­tion­al­ly af­ter writ­ing the 2022 Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment ex­am­i­na­tions.

The re­sults were made pub­lic through the Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion Act. Plac­ing third na­tion­al­ly was Ha­laa Khan fol­lowed by Is­abel­la Bethelmy who placed sixth, and Ka­ri­na Bhag­wan­dass who placed eighth.

The school is present­ly await­ing fur­ther re­sults through FOI which may mean ad­di­tion­al top stu­dents.

All three stu­dents re­turned to their al­ma mater on Mon­day to share the se­cret of their suc­cess with for­mer school­mates. Khan said it was im­por­tant not to be­come stressed out by the rigours of the ex­am­i­na­tion.

"You can do it. You have to fo­cus and work hard. You need not stress. Take a lot of breaks but re­mem­ber you have to put in the work if you want to be in the top ten and if you want to get your first choice," she said.

The girls are all at­tend­ing Na­pari­ma Girls High School cur­rent­ly.

Bethelmy al­so said it was im­por­tant not to feel pres­sured.

"It is not go­ing to be that hard,”she said.

Bhag­wan­dass thanked her teach­ers who worked with the class to en­sure that every­one did well.

"You must have ded­i­ca­tion and work hard to place in the top ten," she added.

Ag Principal of San Fernando TML Primary School, Wahida Mohammed-Narine (centre), and Standard Five teachers Imshaz Hosein (left) and Shazara Mohammed (right), celebrate with top SEA winners Halaa Khan, Isabella Bethelmy and Karina Bhagwandass as well as their parents, at the school on Monday 17 April 2023. [Image by RISHI RAGOONATH]

RISHI RAGOONATH

Stan­dard five teach­ers Ims­haz Ho­sein and Shaz­ara Mo­hammed said the stu­dents spent al­most two years do­ing on­line class­es be­fore sit­ting the ex­ams.

"I must say 2022 was one of the most dif­fi­cult years. As we came off the pan­dem­ic, some stu­dents were in school and oth­ers at home. We had to come on to school in the af­ter­noon to fill the gap for those who stayed at home," Ho­sein re­called.

Mo­hammed agreed say­ing: "In my 24 years of teach­ing this was the most dif­fi­cult time. It was a chal­lenge but I must say we got the sup­port of the par­ents who li­aised with us and made it eas­i­er."

Act­ing prin­ci­pal Wahi­da Mo­hammed-Nar­ine said the stu­dents' suc­cess was the re­sult of team­work.

"We en­sured all sys­tems or di­men­sions to teach­ing and learn­ing were im­ple­ment­ed to main­tain a high lev­el of per­for­mance. Stu­dents and teach­ers were mon­i­tored and tracked us­ing both the on­line and the phys­i­cal class­room," she said.

"This was not an easy task as these stu­dents per­formed un­der Covid-19 and de­spite be­ing on­line, they per­formed ex­cep­tion­al­ly well," Nar­ine ex­plained.

All stake­hold­ers were rec­og­nized by the prin­ci­pal for their con­tri­bu­tion to the suc­cess of the school.

Is­abel­la's moth­er Dr Vanes­sa Har­ry said dai­ly re­vi­sion and study­ing were part of Is­abel­la's rou­tine, not­ing many young peo­ple had suf­fered emo­tion­al­ly dur­ing the pan­dem­ic.

"I have seen young girls in my of­fice with gy­nae­co­log­i­cal prob­lems and men­tal ill­ness from be­ing at home. That's why I think it is im­por­tant to keep speak­ing to the chil­dren and en­cour­age them to talk to you. The onus is on us to get them out­side be­cause men­tal ill­ness is more com­mon now," she rec­om­mend­ed.

And Ka­ri­na's fa­ther Dr Neil Bhag­wan­dass said the struc­ture of the SEA need­ed amend­ments.

"It's a hard jour­ney to see the amount of work these chil­dren have to do for SEA so I think in the fu­ture, the struc­ture of the ex­am­i­na­tions needs to be re­assessed so that a wider vol­ume of stu­dents could get a bet­ter op­por­tu­ni­ty for their fu­ture," he said.

Anush­ka Singh of Gand­hi Memo­r­i­al placed first in the 2022 SEA ex­am­i­na­tions na­tion­al­ly while Christo­pher Akow, of Av­o­cat Vedic Pri­ma­ry School, placed sec­ond.