Top Boy Zachary Gill of St. Gabriel’s School getting a hug from parents Gina and Andrew Gill after getting his results yesterday.
Top boy, girl announced
Wed, 06/08/2016 - 12:23am
By:
Patricia Thangaraj
It was all smiles for Zachary Gill of St. Gabriel’s School and Adia Deane of St. Angela’s Primary School, who emerged the top student overall and top boy and top girl, respectively, in this year’s Common Entrance Examination.
These were the results announced by Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones, at a press conference yesterday at the Ministry’s headquarters.
Gill, who scored a 100 per cent in Mathematics and a 98 per cent in English for a converted score of 121.66 and an A in the Composition, will be attending Queen’s College next school term while Deane, who scored 97 per cent in Mathematics and 97 per cent in English for a converted score of 120.94 and an A in the Composition, will be heading off to Harrison College come September.
Gill was not the only one who scored a perfect score in Mathematics. There were two others, also boys. These were Talha Mohamed of Al Falah and Khalil Vanderpool-Nurse of Charles F. Broome, said Jones.
Meanwhile there were no perfect scores in English. However, the top performers in English were Alyssa Charles of St. Angela’s, who fell just one per cent short of a perfect score; Rebekah Bethell, also of St. Angela’s, who scored 98 per cent and Sarah Downes, of Hillaby Turner’s Hall, who also received a score of 98 per cent in this subject.
This year, the Ministry of Education made the decision not to announce the top ten students overall in this island as is the customary practice. When queried about the decision, the Minister of Education replied that they wanted to make it clear that all students have done well within the context of his/her individual capacities and not just the top ten.
“Well, you know I prefer children to celebrate within the context of the families and schools so I have done a slight adjustment this year. Look, education itself is not necessarily an easy thing to understand, either construct or deconstruct. The students who may score 60 as a raw score or 70, when you look at the value added to that child, it is extremely significant and … we shouldn’t be in the habit of saying to a child who scored 60 that you didn’t do well. You do well in the context of your ability.”
The girls once again outperformed the boys, which he attributes to a higher level of maturity among the girls than the boys.
“Females continue to perform better than the males and this has been historical and we have explained that over time. It is a matter of maturity. At this age girls tend to be a little bit [more] mature than boys and a little more focussed than some boys – I should say that – because as you can see from the Maths, the three that got 100 were all male.”