“Hard work pays off” – Region 6 top NGSA student

“I feel very good and I know that the hard work that I put in has paid off,” Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) top National Grade Six Assessment NGSA student Renace Joseph noted.
Joseph scored 517 marks out of the possible 528 and was offered a place a Queen’s College.
The All Saints Primary student said she did not believe the news when she was told by her class teacher.
“I went to the website and checked it out for myself,” she said.
This year, students were forced out of the classroom due to the regulations implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Joseph, like many other students, was forced to continue tuition online.
“Because of COVID-19, we could not be in the classroom and had to take lessons on Zoom… At least I got stuff to keep me occupied so that I could have done well.”
Joseph said she has not made up her mind on a career as yet as she is leaving that decision for when she is in high school.
At home, she is very quiet, spending most of her free time on an electronic tablet surfing the internet or watching something on Netflix.
According to her mother, Renita Fraser, she expected her daughter to do well but not to top the Region.
Over the past decade, All Saints Primary has been producing students in the top ten annually. This year the school has two.
The other is Varshnie Mulla, who placed sixth in the region with 511 marks. Mulla said she wants to become a doctor to assist with incurable diseases.
Asked why, she said because when someone does a good deed, it always comes back to them. She said studying through the internet was not difficult for her because both her class and lesson teachers assisted.
However, over at Tain Primary School, Safiya Tribhowan secured 514 marks, one more than Kairon Roopnarine of Cumberland Primary, who said he studied very hard and late at nights in preparation for the examinations.
“I did not get to go to lessons and that was a big struggle and I did not get to go to school as much,” the young student who hopes to become an engineer disclosed.
Meanwhile, rounding off the top five for the Region are Suhana Bacchus and Dilan Pawaroo, both of Corriverton Primary with 512 marks each, and Usha Indar Singh of Gangarram Primary with 511 marks.
Notably, Cropper Primary, which had the top student in the Region last year and has been a regular feature in the Region’s top ten, had no student appearing in the Region’s top ten for 2020. (Andrew Carmichael)