When the scholarship winners for the 2026 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) were announced, Zurie Cousins and Neeraj Sahukar of Creative Kids Learning Academy in St Andrew stood out as Jamaica’s top girl and top boy.

Along with 28 Government scholarships, and four others reserved for primary school students, eligibility for the top awards is solely determined by the highest PEP scores.

As such, Creative Kids’ double success has naturally raised questions about what the school is doing differently; moreso, because this year’s results are no anomaly, given that the institution has consistently produced outstanding results, including a previous top student and government scholars.

Principal Haedi-Kaye Holmes attributed the success to a philosophy that doesn’t place limits on students’ potential, complemented by strict adherence to tapping into students’ strengths and building on their weaknesses.

It’s a winning formula that not only produced the 2026 top scholars, but also five government scholars.

Creative’s success aside, the 2026 scholarship list also lays out, in black and white, that private schools have outperformed primary schools. This has made quite a few people uncomfortable.

In videos, letters, and social commentary, Jamaicans have been dissecting the harsh truths exposed by Creative Kids’ successes. The critics, some of whom have called for private schools to be excluded from future scholarships, are realising that, year after year, the overwhelming majority of Jamaica’s highest PEP achievers come from private institutions.

This year, only three primary schools appear among the 28 government scholarship recipients.

Of course, private schools generally benefit from smaller class sizes, greater access to resources, and other social advantages that positively influence student outcomes. Yet PEP was introduced as a standardised assessment intended to measure ability fairly across the system, and not to award the highest honours routinely to students who already enjoy structural advantages.

Also of note is that public schools receive full support from the State, while private schools depend largely on tuition and fund-raising to meet their operational costs. Indeed, many private institutions have spent years grappling with declining enrolment, rising operational costs, and the financial impact of recovering from natural disasters. And, despite these pressures, they continue to produce exceptional academic outcomes.

The reason for the performance gap isn’t likely to be a single factor. While leadership, parental engagement, and teacher accountability all play critical roles in student achievement, the emphasis on nurturing children’s confidence and refusing to limit potential is not exclusive to private schools.

Primary institutions like Jessie Ripoll, Kensington, Mona Heights, Naggo Head, St George’s Girls’, St Francis, St Richards, and many more, have also cultivated environments in which students excel academically while developing confidence in their abilities.

So, rather than framing the debate as public versus private, Jamaicans should be asking how the best practices of consistently high-performing schools can be replicated across the system.

Every child, regardless of whether they attend a public or private school, deserves an equal opportunity to compete for the nation’s highest honours. This year’s results should be viewed not only as a celebration of exceptional achievement, but as an opportunity to identify what drives educational excellence and apply those lessons across all Jamaica’s schools.