MONTEGO BAY, St James — Twelve-year-old Kamoya Reid is no stranger to being named top girl at school.

However, an impressive performance during this year’s Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination saw her receiving an award for being the top student, during a recent graduation ceremony at Green Island Primary School in Hanover. She was also named top student in western Hanover.

With a placement score of 339.7 Reid is headed to the Manning’s School in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, in the upcoming school year. She performed better than 94 per cent of all test takers on the ability test and was placed at the top school of her choice.

Reid is overjoyed and is already looking forward to being at the top of her classes at her new school.

“I feel really excited, like I accomplished a lot because I made my family proud. I wouldn’t say PEP was hard or easy, there were a couple of questions that I did not understand but I didn’t have much of a problem figuring them out. I want to be the top girl at Manning’s as well,” Reid told the Jamaica Observer.

According to the girl’s mother Kaycia Campbell, though she was previously named top girl in 2017 and runner-up top girl in 2017 in her time at Logwood Early Childhood Institution (ECI), her family was blown away by her PEP performance.

“It was a bit surprising to see that she is actually the top student at her school because she was not very focused. She was not that book-loving child that is always in her books or trying to read something. She is the child who is more artistic — she loves to draw so we usually had to beg and plead with her to take up a book, and she would always just fall asleep whenever she did,” Campbell told the Sunday Observer.

She added, “But we are really proud and excited because she is the first in our family who has gotten such recognition.”

Campbell sang praises to her daughter’s grade six teacher, Ms Salmon, whom she said was instrumental in recognising and nurturing her potential during her last year at the primary school. She explained that with the teacher’s help her family was able to instill discipline and order in Reid’s schedule.

“Her grade six teacher, Ms Salmon, gave her class everything. There is not one day I did not hear Ms Salmon’s voice in our home. Even after face-to-face classes resumed, she kept online classes at 6:00 pm every single day, including Sundays,” Campbell told the Sunday Observer.

Campbell explained that her family was wary of the negative implications that are associated with pressuring children. However, with the help of Ms Salmon, they were able to encourage, in a balanced way, the need for education and good learning habits.

“She was awarded in grade one but she fell back to getting grades in the 80s and occasional 90s. We didn’t push because we thought it was good enough, and we wanted to avoid mental illnesses that are associated with parents pressuring children to be overachievers. But COVID made it worse [and] she dropped to the 70s and 80s,” she said.

“It was when she got to Ms Salmon in grade six that her potential was recognised, and she was pushed by the teacher to do her very best in a healthy and non-pressuring manner. [Ms Salmon] advised us to take away social media, which we did, so she had little to no social media access for over a year,” Campbell added.

While relishing the memories of her recent graduation, during which she was one of the two students chosen to be valedictorians, Reid shared that she was given awards for top PEP mathematics and science performance at her school. Her scores for the subject areas were 355 and 353, respectively.

Reid told the Sunday Observer that her ambition is to become a family lawyer. However, Campbell is prepared to nurture and support her daughter through the different stages of her life before she makes that decision.

“She said that she wants to be a lawyer but she also likes to paint and draw,” said Campbell.