We wish to congratulate the 400 students who were awarded national scholarships for their performance in the 2019 Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exam (CAPE).
A special acknowledgement must also be paid to the two President Medal winners, Celine Roodal and Sharvaani Rampersad Maharaj.
These students are among the best academic performers in the country and there is no doubt that their success was only possible because of hard work, discipline, sacrifice and talent. It is also true that their support systems, including parents, families, teachers and the wider community, helped them to excel.
There were many other students who excelled at the CAPE and were unable to receive a national scholarship owing to the limit that must necessarily be placed on the number of awardees.
Education Minister Anthony Garcia revealed, that while a student’s grades and grade profiles are typically used to determine the allocation of scholarships at the CAPE exams, the challenge in separating some students prompted the ministry to drill down and examine the students “T” or standard scores as a basis for deciding the allocation since there were more than 400 students whose grades and grade profiles met the criteria for the award of scholarships.
He could not confirm how many students whose grades and grade profiles met the requirement, did not receive scholarships because of their “T” scores. This, among other things, raises several issues which we must pursue, if we are to get the best and most equitable outcome.
From the onset let us be clear that there will never be a system for the award of scholarships that is perfect but we must constantly work towards the best outcome.
The reality is that the top-performing schools remain the denominational schools, while the government schools are under-performing, which is a cause for concern.
The last time that a government school was a top-performing institution was in the 1970s and that was Queen’s Royal College, which has maintained its place as the top-performing non-denominational school. But even QRC has for a long time been outperformed by the various denominational schools. The question must be asked: What are the best practices that make the church schools superior performers? Can those strategies be implemented in secular institutions?
Secondly, is the decision to look at the students’ CSEC scores a fair way to separate those who are tied at the CAPE level? In other words, if the argument is that one student gets a scholarship over another and while their grades are exact, one outperformed the other at a lower level, it could be argued that the student not getting the scholarship is being punished for improved performance. Should we not consider other factors, like extracurricular activities such as sports or volunteerism?
What about the areas in which the scholarships are being awarded? Are these the paths which will best develop the country in the future, and the best areas to invest the country’s dollars?
Finally, should scholarships be a meaningful benchmark in determining the quality of a school, or should it be less about winning national scholarships and more about developing scholarship?