Before a packed house today at the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts—so packed, in fact, that during his speech, Minister of Education Patrick Faber was forced to apologize to disgruntled parents who were unable to get a view of their sons and daughters on stage—some 991 top performers in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and 16 in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) were recognized for their performance in exams sat in May and June.
The top CSEC performers were from St. John’s College (high school): Romel Rudon and Aaron Stock. Both young men recorded 14 Grade I passes (on a six-point scale) and 1 Grade II pass. Rudon edged out Stock for the top place.
Rudon told the gathering that his wish was for this class of honorees to combine their various talents in the service of Belize, both at home and abroad, and represent the country well.
He acknowledged that young people are sometimes “foolish” and tend to rely on emotion rather than facts for decision-making.
He also recognized Almighty God as the source of his comfort and strength, and strongly advised his fellow honorees to do the same and serve in God’s name and honor.
SJC’s lone individual subject award, in Information Technology, was won by Rudon, who also took home the subject group awards for the sciences and humanities.
The other subject group awards were won by Edward P. Yorke High School’s Taze Russell Smith (Business) and Jonas Sanchez (Technical/Vocational).
Sanchez is also the region’s top candidate in that field and will be recognized by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) in December at its annual conference.
E.P. Yorke, a government-managed school, won 5 individual subject awards and saw 92 awardees get certificates of excellence and achievement; S.J.C. managed a total of 81, an increase over last year’s haul of 68, achieved as the top school in the Caribbean.
A total of 384 candidates received certificates of excellence for six or more passes of Grade 2 or higher, on a scale of six at both the general and technical proficiencies, including English A and Mathematics, and a further 607 received a certificate of achievement for six or more passes of Grade 3 or better at general and technical proficiency, or Grade 1 at basic proficiency.
Corozal Community College recorded 100 awardees total in both categories and, of all Belizean schools, they had the most award recipients. Sacred Heart of Cayo had 96; Stann Creek Ecumenical, 92; and Muffles College, 78.
Two southern schools that did well were Toledo Community College, with 51 total awardees, and Independence High School with 43.
In the CAPE, St. John’s College Junior College returned to prominence by sweeping the top two places, with Ravesh Sukhnandan receiving top place and Orchel Usher second. SJCJC received 13 of the individual 30 subject awards, with eight each going to Corozal Junior College and Stann Creek Ecumenical Junior College and one to a private candidate, Uche Stanley Mbah in Unit 1 of Electrical and Engineering Technology.
Substitute guest speaker, Minister of Education Patrick Faber (replacing Prime Minister Dean Barrow who had scheduling conflicts) reminded the young achievers of what it took to get to this point in their lives and pushed them to, as the late Steve Jobs of Apple once said, never rest on one’s laurels and figure out what’s next, achieving each task at a better pace than before.
Rudon and Stock took home full scholarships and laptop computers for their performances, while Ravesh Sukhnandan, studying at the University of Michigan, was the Belize Open Scholarship winner, who receives a full scholarship to the university of his/her choice.