Fatima Karim of St Rose’s High School pursued 20 subjects at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination and earned 19 grade ones and one grade two earning her the top spot in the country.
“I feel really really excited and proud of myself, really happy…the hardest subject for me was Office Administration alone” was her reaction to the good news.
During an interview with News Room today (August 17, 2016), elated Karim was asked why she chose to write 20 subjects; this too given the criticisms against writing that many subjects at the CSEC level. Karim noted that her belief is, no one should be stopped from achieving their full potential.
“My belief is that you do as many subjects that you think you can do and do well. If only ten subjects, you believe you can do well, then I am ok with that, do ten subjects and do them brilliantly but I felt that I can do 20 subjects so that’s why I did it. So my belief is that you push yourself to how far you can go if you can do 15 subjects, do it, if you can do 20 subjects, do it. Do not let anybody hold you back” she said.
However, she noted that her reason for pursuing 20 subjects is to win a scholarship offered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) to further her studies.
“I pursue 20 subjects so that I could have a scholarship so that I am able to continue my studies…there is the CXC scholarship for the most outstanding and the Science; which are the only two I can apply for. The most outstanding is if you do the best in the region and the Science is if you do the best in Science out of the whole Caribbean” the St Rose’s student related.
The aspiring Petroleum Engineer is hoping to get into the University of Texas (Austin). However, she noted if she is unsuccessful in her attempt to enrol at the University, she will be pursuing her Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) studies here.
By Bibi Khatoon
