NINE Jamaican students who excelled in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) in 2022 were presented with awards during a ceremony held last Thursday.

Acting Chief Education Officer Dr Kasan Troupe presented the students with their prizes, as they watched the virtual ceremony from the Ministry of Education and Youth’s offices in Kingston.

Among the top students were Antonia Binns of the St Hilda’s Diocesan High School, who received the award for Best Short Story; Jonell Henry, Campion College, was awarded for Caribbean History; and Nia-Ashley Harris of St Andrew High received an award for CSEC geography.

Additionally, Dora Watt of Montego Bay High topped CAPE humanities performers, while Thalia Grant of Immaculate Conception High was most outstanding in CAPE business studies.

Antwan Campbell of Herbert Morrison Technical High was awarded for CAPE building and mechanical engineering drawing; Brandon Martin of Knox College for CAPE electrical and electronic engineering technology, unit 1; Shaniel McLean, Old Harbour High, CAPE electrical and electronic engineering technology, unit 2; and Jemoy Jarrett of Herbert Morrison Technical High received an award for CSEC industrial technology.

Dr Troupe congratulated the awardees and encouraged them to continue being beacons of inspiration.

“Because you embraced hard work, excellence embraced you today. People need to hear you, see you, and be inspired by your hard work,” she stated.

She thanked the students for all they do, while charging them to aim high in all their endeavours.

“The sky is no longer the limit. You can go higher and higher; keep investing in yourself. there is no one career in the 21st century, so don’t limit yourself. But make sure that you maintain integrity and a high level of honesty,” Dr Troupe urged.

In her response to receiving an award, Dora Watt stated that “the only thing that is on your mind is to get the exams done and to get them out of the way and you’re not really looking at the end result except that you want to do well, and you want to make those who invest in you really proud.

“So, having come to the end of my CAPE journey and feeling that I will be just going on to university and then one day it pops up in my e-mail that I was getting this award, I was so shocked,” she revealed.

For Brandon, his hard work paid off, and he said that “the subject that I am getting awarded for, I thought I would fail because it was my weakest area. I had a lot of sleepless nights. When I was crying, my mother kept on encouraging me to keep the faith and to believe in God, and I did that. I am glad to say that I overcame.”

Meanwhile, Antonia said she was moved to tears when the reality set in that she had topped the region.

“It was an amazing experience when I was informed that I got this award. I was very calm about it, but when I got home and it actually hit me, I was moved to tears because I was like ‘I wrote the best short story in the entire Caribbean’ and that’s huge,” she said.

Established in 1972, the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has an objective of assuring the global human resource competitiveness of the Caribbean.

The organisation comprises 16 participating countries: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos Islands.

— JIS