By Isanella Patoir
The North Ruimveldt Secondary School has recorded a historic overall pass rate at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.
The school has been stigmatised as an underperformer, but over the past couple of years the students have been performing well.
At this year’s CSEC the school recorded an overall pass rate of 80% in grades one to three. The school’s matriculation rate has also seen improvement with a 71% pass rate. The matriculation rate is assessed when students achieve passes in Mathematics and English with five subjects or more.
In 2018, the overall pass rate was 66% with a matriculation rate of 32%; the previous year the overall pass rate was 67% and matriculation was at 23%.
This year’s results are by far the best the school has ever experienced with 100% passes in 15 subjects including English, Agricultural Science, Family and Resource Management, Electronic Document and Preparation management, Information Technology, Principles of Business, Office Administration, Technical Drawing and Mechanical Engineering.
The Head Teacher, Allison Cosbert told the News Room that the school was commissioned in 2015 as an ‘A’ List school because of their CSEC performances over the years.
“We would have done better than what we were doing before and we would have put measures in place to ensure that students are all rounded.
“We place emphasis on the mathematics and English and that is why I think 71% of them were able to get mathematics and English along with the other subject areas,” the Head teacher said.
The school has a population of over 400 students and is in need of upgraded computers and more textbooks.
According to the Head Teacher, parents were initially hesitant to send their children to the school but this year’s enrollment was the largest the school has seen over the last few years.
One of the teachers Donessa McDonald is encouraging parents to send their children to the school.
“This was a school that I guess had a name back in the day, people would transfer their children, nobody wants to come here but we have all the teachers and we do get results, I think that people should reconsider,” McDonald said.
She noted that most of the CSEC students did not attend extra lessons.
The top students
The top CSEC student for the school this year is Erykah Baptiste who secured 11 subjects with seven grade ones and four grade twos; she is an aspiring accountant.
The top student credited her success to her teachers who went the extra mile.
“All the teachers were behind us, particularly Sir Qaucy; he would be there during middays, if he pass the class and see we had nothing to do he would give us work…the teachers went an extra mile to make sure we did well,” Baptiste said.
Baptiste explained that she applied to the Bertram Collins College of Public Service to secure employment when her studies are complete.
“It is a better opportunity and this whole thing with unemployment, when you go through the college it is [guaranteed] that you will get a job at the end.”
The second best performing student is Johanna Davidson who secured 11 subjects with six grade ones, four grade twos and one grade three.
Meanwhile, one of the two boys in the top performers, Daniel Wharton wrote nine subjects and gained three grade ones, four grade twos and two grade threes.
The other top students are Mikaela Folkes, Shanique Morris, Savannah Austin, Faith Fraser, Aaliyah Trotman, Abigail Barkoye, Zishel Williams and Shaquan Greene, all who secured grades one to three in their subjects.
