Schools looking for scholarships

ONCE again, the girls of St Joseph’s Convent in Port-of-Spain have done their school proud, and are expecting to win many scholarships. The school was among several which yesterday expressed satisfaction with this year’s results in the Cambridge GCE Advanced and Ordinary Level and the Caribbean Secondary Education Examination (CXC). The results for both exams were released to schools yesterday by the Ministry of Education. When Newsday visited the convent at Pembroke Street, vice principal Jennifer Anandsingh was brimming with joy at the girls’ success. “The results were outstanding. Excellent as usual with 100 percent passes in CXC and 124 of the 126 girls getting full certificates in the A’ Levels. About 11 or 12 of them got all As,” she said.  She anticipated there would be a number of scholarships being awarded to the school. Several students were seen chatting about their results. Most said they were pleased with their performance.

Across the street at St Mary’s College, acting principal Enrico Rajah told Newsday there was a 92 percent pass rate in the A’ Levels, which he said was much better than last year’s results. He too was expecting scholarships, although he said the boys did not do too well in General Paper (GP). He said the results were extremely good in Geography, History and Literature. Rajah had not yet analysed the CXC results, but was confident the boys would have also done well. Those who had gone to collect their results were seen huddled around the notice board with the results, while others sat discussing the grades. At least one student said he was not satisfied with the grades, because he knew he could have done better. In the East, St Augustine Girls’ High School principal Kathleen Anderson told Newsday her girls did very well as usual.

She said there was a 100 percent pass rate in CXC, with 85 of the 87 students who wrote A’ Levels getting full certificates. She also boasted that Vera Bhajan, who has no arms, got six distinctions out of the seven subjects she wrote. At Hillview College, principal Jeremiah Seepersad said he was very pleased with the results, especially with the CXC. However, he felt the boys could have done better. Seepersad said the Tunapuna school usually receives scholarships in Math and Sciences, and this year he  was expecting a Business scholarship as well. At Lakshmi Girls’ in St Augustine, the principal said the results were “on par with last year’s.” The school did CAPE for the first time and received 100 percent passes. There was a 95 percent pass rate in CXC, she said. The principal at Holy Cross College in Arima said he was very satisfied, particularly in the sciences. He said the results were consistent with last year’s.