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Minister of Education, Ronald Jones, as he congratulated the 2017 Scholarship winners from Harrison College and Queen’s College yesterday.

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Minister of Education Ronald Jones and other high level officials in the Ministry of Education with exhibition winners from Harrison College, Queen’s College, Christ Church Foundation School and the Barbados Community College after the announcement was officially made at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College yesterday morning.

QC DOMINATES

Takes lion’s share of 45 scholarships, exhibitions

THE hard work and sacrifice have paid off.

In a ceremony yesterday morning, Minister of Education Ronald Jones officially announced that this year, students from four institutions have copped a total of 45 scholarships and exhibitions.

In the final tally, sixth form Queen’s College (QC) students captured the lion’s share of awards, with 15 scholarships and 11 exhibitions. Harrison College gained 11 scholarships and five exhibitions while the Barbados Community College took home two exhibitions and Christ Church Foundation, one exhibition.

The announcement was made yesterday in the auditorium of the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, where most of the beaming winners were in attendance flanked by proud family members.

Minister Jones also revealed that at least ten of the exhibition winners would have gained scholarships if they had applied themselves even more in the Communication Studies and Caribbean Studies. By gaining a 2 in one of the Units rather than a 1, it took them out of the running to be a scholarship winner. He encouraged students to attach the right level of attention to these subjects.

Chief Education Officer, Karen Best, said she was extremely happy about the results, and predicted, after filtering the results in the first year, that the scholarships would surpass last year’s figures. A few of the students are already overseas pursuing studies, while a small number said they will defer their scholarship or exhibition for a year. Last year, there were nine scholarships and 18 exhibitions.

While commending the top performers that have qualified for scholarships and exhibitions, Minister Jones noted that the more recent schools with sixth forms are still settling down. He reminded that his Ministry has been expanding its sixth from portfolio, moving past the “elitist and class-based” environment that was found at Harrison College, Queen’s College, Combermere and Lodge, which in the past were the only four secondary schools offering sixth form studies.

“By September we will have 11 schools doing six former post-secondary education. All contributing to the pool of success,” he said, noting that results for CAPE in Units 1 and 2 are generally high in Barbados.

While commending the effort of the teachers, he said how they go about teaching is an important factor, particularly for younger teachers.

“Junior teachers in some of our secondary schools who get good results as opposed to some who have been there for 30 years and when you try to examine the difference between a teacher of three to four years getting children to respond for success, you know what the difference is?” he queried. “You create that love and bond for the subject. It comes through the teacher. They exude that confidence and love for the subject,” he said.

Students expressed plans to pursue studies in mechanical engineering, accounting, actuarial science, medicine, aeronautical engineering, biomedical science, to name a few. They will be travelling to prestigious universities far and near including the Howard University, University of South Hampton, the University of Waterloo and the University of the West Indies among others. (JH)

Scholarship winners
Harrison College
Carlos Andrew
Clementine Chee-A-Tow-Forter
Daveed Gittens
Sian Hallsworth
Lashaina Holford
David Johnson
Karishma Karnani
Destini Lynch
Afeefah Lunat
Dominique Persaud
Kyron Richards

Queen’s College
Alana Applewhaite
Dominique Bovell
Shannon Boxill
Kamar Clarke
Dominique Ellis
Gabrille Farnum
Adara Haynes
Tré Hollingsworth
John Hunte
Joshua Jones
Hailey Laurayne
Zaria Layne
Tiffani Lynch
Nia Marshall
Emma McIntyre

Exhibition Winners
Harrison College
Nicholas Atwell
Jameelah Bhana
Jada Jones
Shaquille Thomas
Maurice Walkes

Queen’s College
Chanelle Bowen
Aliyya Boyce
Shane Carter
Shanice Cox
Latisha Edwards
Simone Jean-Marie
Maisha King
Tia Mahon
Emilee Mustor
Toria Small
Teri Williams-Niles

Christ Church Foundation
Azaria Forde

Barbados Community College
Cara Cumberbatch
Brittany Gibbons

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