MONTEGO BAY, St James — For 11-year-old Rebecca Keane, relocating with her family in the middle of a pandemic came with its fair share of anxiety, but that was not enough to deter the young girl who later became the top performer in this year’s Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam for the Irwin Primary School.

Keane’s brilliant performance earned her a spot at the Montego Bay High School for girls. Her score in the exam, which is used to place students in secondary schools across the country, stood at 392.1 – with the perfect score being 400.

She is beyond proud of her performance.

“It feels exciting, but there is also another confusing emotion that I am feeling because I don’t really know many high schools here. I think that it is one of the top schools, but I’m also…I don’t really know how to explain it,” Keane told the Jamaica Observer West before giggling with excitement.

With an infectious enthusiasm, Keane explained that she moved from Manchester just months before entering grade five at the Montego Bay-based primary school.

Like many others who have changed schools, young Keane was now forced to familiarise herself with her new surroundings and peers. This, however, proved difficult as classes were moved to the virtual space, she said.

But she was excited for the endless possibilities she believed her new school could provide.

“I wasn’t really sad about that. The teachers were very nice and warm to everyone at the school,” Keane said, before admitting that reintegrating into the face-to-face school system was harder than she had imagined.

“Going back into the face-to-face system felt very awkward to be honest, especially because I was new and the rest of the children were familiar with each other. Everyone was just sitting and looking around at each other during breaktime and lunchtime, so that made it feel even more awkward and uncomfortable, but the teachers did their best to try and help us warm up,” she told the Observer West.

Expressing her gratitude to the teachers at the Irwin Primary School, Keane is now looking forward to continuing her excellence at Montego Bay High School.

“I don’t really know much about the school just yet, except that it is one of the top all-girl school in Montego Bay. But I feel really proud that they actually accepted me because that means there is something big about me because nothing else could impact how I got in except for how well I did,” said the young girl.

Keane’s mother, Monique Davis, told the Observer West that, while she is overwhelmed with pride, her daughter’s performance is not surprising.

“We are very proud. I honestly cannot say that we are surprised that she got her first choice because she worked hard and feel really good about it. It was expected that she would do her best and we told her that as long as she represents herself at her best she will get the type of grades she wants,” Davis said.

“Her stepfather is also very proud. He is the one who helps to give her some of the motivational talk when she needs it. She makes it easy, but there are times when she will get frustrated and is in need of a little pep talk,” she added.

She noted that, while the young Keane did experience some hiccups during virtual learning, the girl has always held her head up and worked her way through the kinks with the help of her village.

“It was a challenging transition for all children, I think she handled it well outside of the technical issues that she would experience. She would probably submit a form for one of her tests, which was a graded piece, and it would show up blank, so she would freak out,” said the girl’s mother.

She continue, “Outside of that, I think she had a very good transition. She had an excellent teacher, Miss Baker, who really worked with her. She really worked with the batch of students that she had. That was her grade five teacher. I think she helped to make the transition much easier for the students because she was very patient.”

“But Rebecca handled it well. She is a child who usually uses her tablet, so it wasn’t too much of a shift in terms of the tools that she now needed to use. In terms of how she managed the curriculum and not being able to physically go to class, I think, if anything, she did miss the interaction. While it allowed her to focus, she definitely missed the interaction, and I think that was the general feeling for most of her peers,” Davis added.

As young Keane prepares to continue her educational journey at the school of her choice, her mother told the Observer West that she expects big things from her daughter who wants to pursue the arts.

“I am expecting her to continue doing well and stay focused. She is already pretty clear about what she would like to pursue, she is extremely creative and she wants to become an artiste, so it is just for her to continue on the path that she is on. I am pretty sure she will be doing that,” said Davis.