teenAGE Observer writer, Louis Davis, was among over 100 students who received awards last Friday at the Jamaica Association of Principals and Secondary Schools (JAPSS) National CXC Awards ceremony held at St George’s College.

The ceremony saw students who excelled in the recently concluded Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) receiving awards in various subject areas. Davis, who attends Wolmer’s Boys’ School and has been writing for the magazine about a year now, received the award for top Jamaican student in economics at the CSEC level.

In her remarks, JAPSS President Heather Murray revealed that Jamaican students emerged as top performers in 16 subjects Caribbean-wide. She also revealed that Jamaica is the top-performing nation in the sciences, as compared to other Caribbean nations.

The island’s top CSEC science student is Nile Anderson from Manning’s School, followed by Jonothan Crooks and Kemarle Walker, respectively; both of Wolmer’s Boys’ School. For the humanities: Reeba Milton of Bishop Gibson High placed above Trudy-ann Williamson of Westwood High and Kameice Francis of Campion College, to cop the top three spots, respectively. Gina Greaves of Clarendon College, Katreece Campbell (Montego Bay High) and Tiffany Holung were the top three finishers in the businesses. Jabari Hastings, Dominic Saunders, Khari Gray, and John Lord; all of Campion College were the top finishers in technical and vocational subjects.

Campion College made a clean sweep of the awards for five CSEC and three CAPE subjects, making it the top school overall at both CSEC and CAPE. Students from the school took home all the awards for CSEC: mathematics, additional mathematics, chemistry, technical drawing, and geography.

At the CAPE level, Campion won all the awards for chemistry unit 1, law unit 2, and Spanish unit 2. Perhaps the school’s most impressive sweep is in mathematics, where six students: Abigail Cameron, Michael Pryce, Jabari Hastings, Aung Myint, Khari Gray and Dominic Saunders; produced an exceptional fete, all tying for first place in CESC Mathematics.

Brown’s Town Community College was the only other institution to perform a sweep of awards, with Mikhail Reid, Conan Sterling and Edel Saunders, respectively, copping the awards for CAPE unit 1 electrical and electronic technology.

Despite Campion’s dominance, the award for best overall CSEC results went to Fitzroy Wickham of York Castle High School, who earned 12 CSEC passes, followed by Anicia McFarlane of Manning’s School (17 passes) and Jhanel Garwood of Morant Bay High School (12 passes).

In her address, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Elaine Foster-Allen encouraged the awardees: “Because you have achieved does not mean you should step on the shoulders of someone who has not yet achieved.”

She challenged them to instead be shoulders to carry and help those who are performing below them.

The event was sponsored by Macmillan Publishers.

— Aldane Walters