On February 19, this year the Hon Minister of Education, Colin Riley told graduating students successful at the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) examination, “Their accomplishments must be seen as part of a team building exercise.” He continued, ”your individual accomplishments are not to supersede your willingness capability and also your interest in being on the team of Montserrat.”
The evenings ceremony began with an invocation led by MSS Student Allen Mullings followed by a Welcome & Introduction by Ministry of Education Executive Officer Miss Meridith Lynch of the Chairperson, Mr. Gregory Julius, Principal the Brades Primary School.
Chairperson Julius, noted in opening remarks as he addressed the students. “I’m sure you’ll agree with that, as you stand on the brink of moving into a life beyond your achievement at CXC, change will be inevitable , it is inevitable and indeed gratifying to see that our awarding class have matured and become skill associate, proficient ready to tackle and further their lifelong education, it is inevitable that structures and processes and relationships will change in your day to day lives…” he told them.
Thirty-four (34) students from the 2012 CXC examinations satisfied the criteria for the following awards ranging from five to ten passes. The criteria for the awards covered 5 to 8 or more subject passes; as well as Most Outstanding Performance in Humanities, Most Outstanding Performance in Technical & Vocational Subjects, Most outstanding Performance in the Sciences, Most Outstanding Performance in Business Education Subjects, Overall Outstanding CCSLC Students, Overall Outstanding CSEC Student and Overall Outstanding CAPE Student.
Eight students gained 5 CXC passes; eleven gained 6, three gained 7; seven gained 8; two gained nine, and three gained 10 subjects. The three were Joseph Cassell who obtained 7 grade ones; Michaela Greer who achieved 7 grade ones, and the star of the awardees Tiffannie Skerritt who obtained 10 grade ones.
Under the CAPE awards the OVERALL OUTSTANDING student in the 2012 CXC CAPE examinations was Miss Kadine Cabey.
Miss Tiffannie Skerritt, with the 2012 national CXC CSEC Overall Outstanding Student Award was easily the student of the moment with her achievements, making history in the Emerald Isle at the 2012 May/June CSEC Examination. The young woman is the first to make all grade one passes for the island in 10 subject areas.
She gave the Awardee’s Reflection on Achievement student speech in which she told her fellow students, that along the lines of the Montserrat Community College motto, she encourages the class of 2012, “to continue to aspire to continue to apply and to continue to achieve…”
She noted that they were ‘volcano babies’ born in 1995 and 96. “There is so much potential within our year,” she said, as she closed, “I wish you all the best, wishing you a happy year, and hope that ten years from now when we meet up someplace we will be able to reflect on these great memories that we have.”
The Hon Minister of Education, Youth Affairs & Sports, Colin Riley was the honoured speaker at the event, delivering the feature address in which he told the audience. “This graduating class of 2012, I believe is doing much better than we did 30-33 years ago – so believe in yourselves, as he at the same opined, “I always believe however that school children do not do as well as they can,” ädding, “I believe that our future must be defined by us making smart choices.”
He shared the thought, that smart choices require a few uncompromising things the first of which, he said: “is open discussion. You must begin or continue the process of discussion, debate, analysis and conclusion. Ssecond, is the commitment to high and minimum standards. Our minimum standards for managing all our institutions that matter must be high, and you this emerging generation must demand that for example at MSS and MCC and at the University of the West Indies open and on campus, that all the standards are pitched at a very high level. The third thing I want to remind us to think about is that a decision for benchmarking our results and this will get us in the habit of knowing where we are in a competitive world we must begin, we must never accept being left behind, never.
. Each deserving student received their award along with the special awards as described above for most outstanding performances.
The Presentation of Tokens followed by a Vote of Thanks by Miss Yasmin White, Education Officer and Local Registar brought the business of the evening to an end, followed by light refreshments.
