RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath has pledged to make long-await­ed re­pairs to San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary School a pri­or­i­ty af­ter the school’s prin­ci­pal re­vealed it has main­tained out­stand­ing aca­d­e­m­ic re­sults de­spite years of in­ad­e­quate fa­cil­i­ties.

Ad­dress­ing the school’s grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts on Ju­ly 2, prin­ci­pal Cindy Khan said the school achieved an av­er­age of 86 per cent full cer­tifi­cates at both CSEC and CAPE ex­am­i­na­tions be­tween 2020 and 2025, de­spite stu­dents and teach­ers con­tend­ing with over­crowd­ing, a short­age of spe­cial­ist class­rooms and teacher va­can­cies.

“We cel­e­brat­ed our re­sults at both CSEC and CAPE. On av­er­age, 86 per cent of stu­dents gained full cer­tifi­cates at CSEC from 2020 to 2025,” Khan said, adding that the school’s per­for­mance was “re­al­ly ex­cel­lent for any school in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

She not­ed that the school record­ed an 83 per cent full cer­tifi­cate pass rate in 2025, while eight stu­dents earned na­tion­al bur­saries based on their CAPE re­sults.

Among them was Jabari Braith­waite, who placed first in the Caribbean in CAPE En­vi­ron­men­tal Sci­ence Unit 2, while Sid­ney Moses placed sixth in the re­gion for CAPE Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Sport Unit 1.

Khan said the achieve­ments came “de­spite the many chal­lenges we en­counter on a dai­ly ba­sis.”

She list­ed “se­vere over­crowd­ing, lim­it­ed space, tripling of class­es in the hall, fur­ni­ture and equip­ment short­ages, as well as the dis­lo­ca­tion of class­es” among the is­sues dis­rupt­ing teach­ing and learn­ing.

She al­so re­vealed that the school had been forced to dis­con­tin­ue Food and Nu­tri­tion at the CSEC lev­el be­cause of in­ad­e­quate fa­cil­i­ties and thanked the prin­ci­pal of AS­JA Girls’ Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do, for al­low­ing stu­dents to use its fa­cil­i­ties dur­ing ex­am­i­na­tions.

While ac­knowl­edg­ing work com­plet­ed by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion—in­clud­ing a new show­er fa­cil­i­ty, re­pairs to ter­mite-dam­aged floor­ing, roof re­pairs and im­prove­ments to the school hall dur­ing the 2025 va­ca­tion—Khan ap­pealed for fur­ther as­sis­tance.

“To­day, we again make an ur­gent and fer­vent ap­peal to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and to our Min­is­ter to pri­ori­tise San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary School, a school with a lega­cy of suc­cess, as one that is in crit­i­cal need of class­rooms and spe­cial­ist rooms for the re­open­ing of school in Sep­tem­ber.”

She added that cur­ricu­lum de­liv­ery had al­so been ham­pered by the lack of spe­cial­ist rooms and teach­ing staff.

“To date, we do not have an EDPM teacher and are there­fore un­able to of­fer EDPM and Of­fice Ed­u­ca­tion.”

Re­spond­ing to the ap­peal, Dr Dowlath as­sured the school com­mu­ni­ty that its con­cerns would re­ceive ur­gent at­ten­tion.

“I have asked the of­fi­cials in the min­istry to have a look at that wing that has to be re­placed. So your school is a pri­or­i­ty for us at the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion,” he said.

“I will work to en­sure that, as soon as we can, we get your fa­cil­i­ties back up to our stan­dard of ex­cel­lence.”

He not­ed that the school was more than 60 years old and in need of sig­nif­i­cant up­grades.

Dowlath praised the school’s con­tin­ued aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance and in­no­va­tion de­spite its chal­lenges, de­scrib­ing San Fer­nan­do as “the in­no­va­tion cap­i­tal of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

He sin­gled out the school’s use of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny and in­struct­ed min­istry of­fi­cials to show­case the pre­sen­ta­tion.

“I want to ask my team to get that pre­sen­ta­tion and im­me­di­ate­ly place it on the min­istry’s web­site to­day to recog­nise the stu­dents, the par­ents, the teach­ers and the ad­min­is­tra­tion of San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary School.”

Ad­dress­ing grad­u­ates on the cer­e­mo­ny’s theme, As­pire, Achieve, As­cend to Great­ness, Dr Dowlath urged them to pur­sue their am­bi­tions with re­silience and in­tegri­ty.

“You have a tra­di­tion at this school of ex­cel­lence,” he said.

He re­mind­ed stu­dents that suc­cess re­quires per­se­ver­ance.

“Dreams with­out ac­tion don’t re­al­ly make sense. They re­main as dreams.”

Dr Dowlath al­so en­cour­aged grad­u­ates to use their achieve­ments to ben­e­fit oth­ers.

“The great­ness of your life will not be mea­sured by your sta­tus or the in­come that you have. It’s re­al­ly mea­sured by your char­ac­ter.”

As they pre­pared to leave school, he urged them to re­main ground­ed.

“Car­ry your school name with pride. Con­tin­ue to learn. Re­spect your­self and oth­ers. But use your tal­ents bold­ly. Use them re­spon­si­bly.”

Fea­tured speak­er Robert Du­mas al­so en­cour­aged stu­dents to know their worth and be­lieve in them­selves de­spite set­backs.

“Some peo­ple may not see your val­ue im­me­di­ate­ly, but your val­ue does not de­crease be­cause some­body else fails to see it. Go where your worth is seen,” he said.

He told grad­u­ates they were stronger and more ca­pa­ble than they be­lieved, adding that life would al­ways present chal­lenges, but suc­cess is of­ten built on a foun­da­tion of fail­ure and per­se­ver­ance.