‘Praise God’

Jevaughn, of Calder Hall in Scarborough, who passed for Bishop’s High School (Tobago), will however attend the Harmon’s School of SDA.

This was confirmed by Jevaughn and his proud dad Vaughn Bruce, a school-teacher, during an interview with Newsday at the SDA primary school in Mason Hall.

While students at the school have placed among the top 20 SEA students on the island on previous occasions, it was a first for North Regional SDA Primary in producing the top SEA student, according to principal Cecile Lovelace.

For Jevaughn, it was simply a case of relishing the fruits of hard work.

“I feel happy, I know I put in hard work and it paid off,” he told Newsday. Beaming with pride, his father enjoined, “I feel good about his performance...Praise God! He has made us all proud.” For her part, Jevaughn’s teacher Ariane Ford-Roach indicated he has always excelled in his school work and was not shown any special interest. “He always scored higher than the others (classmates) but there was no special treatment. He always excelled at what he did,” Ford-Roach stressed.

The pride and joy among the teaching staff over Jevaughn’s achievement was almost tangible when Newsday visited the school. “I feel elated and very proud of his performance. The overall performance of the SEA students was also commendable, with no student falling below the 30 per cent mark,” Lovelace told Newsday.

“I am happy!”

Also in the ‘top ten’ SEA bracket in Tobago were Sherice Antoine and Rhonichelle Roberts, both of Hope Anglican Primary in east Tobago, who placed second and third, respectively. Others included Maia Neptune, of Scarborough Methodist Primary; Corissa McClure, of Signal Hill Government; Janae Campbell, of Belle Garden Anglican in east Tobago; Shakilah Julien (Scarborough Methodist); Kioni Wallace (Scarborough Roman Catholic); and Alisha Manning and Maleek Frank, both of Shirley’s SEA Prep Class.

According to the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Division of Education/Youth Affairs/Sport some 900 students wrote the SEA examination in the island. A breakdown of figures showed there was a marked increase in the number of students in Tobago scoring above 90 percent in the exam, which rose from three in 2013 to 21 this year. While, on the opposite end of the benchmark spectrum, there was a decrease in the number of students scoring below 30 percent, from 9.2 per cent in 2013 to 4.4 percent this year, a drop from 79 students last year to 40 students in 2014.