HIS story could read like that of any overachiever boasting Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) passes. Except that he’s nine.

Jaiden Morrison, a student of Free Town Primary School in Clarendon, has not yet sat the Grade Six Achievement Test, which will secure him a place at the secondary school level, but he already has three CSEC subjects — human and social biology, physical education and social studies. The first two he passed at grade two, while earning grade three in social studies.

“I feel very proud,” the soft-spoken but self-assured boy told Career & Education last week.

“I decided to do physical education because I like sports. For social studies, I thought it would help me with my [descriptive] writing of the environment and I pursued human and social biology because I like the sciences,” he said further.

The boy’s mother Cassandra Morrison explained that the family went the CSEC route after Jaiden was denied the opportunity to sit the GSAT in March this year, on account of his age.

Mrs Morrison said Jaiden, who will be repeating grade six starting September, was heartbroken when he was told by his school administrators that he was too young to sit the test.

“At first, I home-schooled him because he was asthmatic. At age two, he was reading well. He started primary school at age four, so last year he was in grade six and he was told that he was too young to do GSAT,” the mother told Career & Education.

She said his last overall average was around 95 per cent.

“We [his parents] thought that since he would have lost his friends, he would have got discouraged and we wanted to distract him, so we sent him to evening classes at Innswood High School’s Evening Institute,” she said.

He later sat the exams at Innswood. But balancing his studies for grade six with CSEC preparation was not an easy task, Jaiden admitted.

“I had to study a lot. I read a lot. It was hard because I had to set a time with one range to go to school, another to study for school and another for CXC,” the youngster said.

According to his mother, her little scholar has been showing signs of being a whizz kid since age two, so passing three CSEC subjects at nine years of age is no major surprise to her.

“At age two, he was reading well. They [officials of the Ministry of Education and educators] have always said that we should provide enrichment programmes for him because when he was five-years-old, he wrote to Prime Minister Bruce Golding asking for a library for his school. The prime minister came visiting his school because of how impressive his letter was,” Cassandra told Career & Education.

The Jamaica Observer carried that story about Golding visiting the school with 400 books in tow, in June 2009. His parents said then that they mailed Jaiden’s letter to the prime minister to humour him, but the then prime minister was so struck that he pledged support to have a library established at the institution.

His incredible aptitude has also seen Jaiden skipping classes since he performs above his age cohort.

“He was also assessed by the MICO Child Assessment & Research In Education (CARE) Centre and at that time he was just five years old. They said he was reading way ahead of some grade eight level student,” she said.

Jaiden hopes to pursue more CSEC subjects before he gets to fifth form — the usual year in which they are done — and is thinking of starting in the coming academic year.

His parents, however, wish for him to focus on GSAT.

“I want him to focus on GSAT. I would not want him to sit (CSEC) subjects, but I think I’ll expose him to Electronic Document Preparation and Management (EDPM),” said Mrs Morrison, who hopes her son will be awarded a place at Campion College next year.

Jaiden himself would prefer attending Glenmuir High School, as it is “closer to home”. The Morrisons live in Longville Park, Clarendon.

He aspires to become a judge, but in the Observer’s 2009 article Jaiden said, “but someone told me I have to be a lawyer first”.

Asked his reason for favouring that profession he said, “I want to protect people’s families and protect people’s rights.”