Donnalee Donaldson, a former student of the Montego Bay High School for girls, has been named the Caribbean's best student for 2004. In addition to the trophy for best overall student, she also received awards for best student in the Humanities and for being second in the island in Religious Education.

Fifteen year-old Donnalee Donaldson, the Caribbean's top student for 2004, shows off her awards. The former student of the Montego Bay High School for Girls was among the 290 CSEC and CAPE students that the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools honoured on Friday during a ceremony at Merl Grove High School in Kingston. (Photo: Karl McLarty)

Donaldson was among 290 of the island's top performers who received awards from secondary school principals on Friday, based on their performance in the Caribbean Examination Council's 2004 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) exams.

"I feel grateful to my teachers from MoBay High and to my mother who helped me prepare," said the 15 year-old, who now attends community college. She was just a little nervous to be in the spotlight.
But she obviously had no problems with her exams last year.

Donaldson scored 10 Grade Ones in the May/June 2004 (CSEC) exams in Biology, Chemistry, English Language, English Literature, Geography, Information Technology, Mathematics, Physics, Religious Education and Spanish.

Following Donaldson in the overall category were Hampton High's Rana Smalling and Glenmuir High's Saddonnya Wright.

The top male performer in Science for 2004 was Daniel Thomas from Ardenne High. His achievements include 10 subjects, all with 'A' profiles. Thomas is no stranger to the limelight as last year, the CXC regional office also named him the Caribbean's most outstanding student in Science.

At Friday's awards ceremony held at the Merl Grove Auditorium, more than 1,000 of the students' relatives and friends turned up to applaud them for a job well done.
In the CSEC category, 144 students from 59 schools received awards. Forty of the awards were for first place, 49 were for second place and 58 for third.

Similarly, for CAPE, there were 144 awardees: 47 first place, 49 second and 48 third. They came from 31 schools islandwide and the awards were in 24 subject areas.

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