BY JOY-ANN GILL | SEP 22, 2022
Several of the 2022 Barbados Scholarship and Exhibition Winners: (top row) – Maymuneh Elcock, Nathan Walker, Dana Forde and Nicholas Phillips; (second row) – Ayana Robinson, Kenya Franklin, Makenzaé Hinkson and Satera Yarde; and (third row) – Rashawn Griffith, Asha King, Destini Cummings and Tori A. A. Gaskin. (GP)
Twelve students have been awarded Barbados Scholarships while 21 others have been granted exhibitions and one student, the Award of Excellence for 2022.
The awardees were announced yesterday by the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, during a virtual presentation ceremony which saw the students expressing gratitude and speaking about their future educational pursuits.
This year, Harrison College received six scholarships, Queen’s College, five and the St. Michael’s school, one. Among the exhibition awardees are nine students from Harrison College, eight from Queen’s College, one from Christ Church Foundation School, two from The St. Michael School and one from the Barbados Community College (BCC).
The scholarship winners from Harrison College are: Maymuneh Elcock, Ella Emtage-Deane, Nathan Walker, Amelia Valdez, Jemma Evelyn and Toby Warren. Those from Queen’s College are: Ayana Robinson, Jaden Whitelaw, Zuri Connell, Jordyn Donawa and Jada Pascall. The lone recipient from The St. Michael School is Janae-Joy Browne. Students receiving exhibitions from Harrison College are: Dana Forde, Zainab Patel, Nicholas Phillips, Jasmine Simmons, Luke Thompson, Alyssa Torrence, Micah Williams, Simiya Allen and Haille Skinner.
From Queen’s College, the students are: Ethan Ellis, Kenya Franklyn, Jeremy King, Joshua Millar, Makenzaé Hinkson, Satera Yarde, Hanna Ashby and Netanya Bradshaw. Exhibition winners from The St. Michael School are Rashawn Griffith and Asha King while from the Christ Church Foundation School the awardee is Destini Cummings and from the BCC, the lone winner is Ajada Pilgrim. Tori A. A. Gaskin of the BCC is this year’s recipient of the Award of Excellence.
Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Kay McConney, incongratulating the students, noted that the last two years had been extremely challenging as the country battled with the COVID 19 pandemic, while seeking to balance the delivery of quality education for all students, especially those who were pursuing the CXC CAPE programme.
She remarked: “I know that it required tremendous discipline and sacrifice in order to achieve the levels of success that we have seen demonstrated in this year’s results. 2022 performance in our Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exams (CAPE), it remained consistent with that of the past five years. Generally, we have witnessed a success rate of approximately 90% of the entries achieving grades one to five, which are the acceptable grades at the CAPE level. This is a clear demonstration of the level of focus of commitment to excellence and determination on the part of our students, our teachers and our school administrators to overcome the challenges which were brought on over by various circumstances over the last couple of years. This year, we have seen a marginal increase in the number of national awards with 34 recipients compared with 31 for 2021.”
While noting the number of scholarships awarded this year, Minister McConney, revealed that this marked a 50 per cent increase in scholarship winners over last year’s, when six students were awarded national scholarships. She also stated that while 21 students received the Barbados Exhibition this year, 36 gained the award in 2021 and this represented a 42 per cent decrease.
Pleased that there was an Award of Excellence from the BCC, Minister McConney explained: “The Award of Excellence is usually for a student who is above the usual secondary school age. Usually, those persons eligible for that award are over 20 years of age but under 13 years of age and will have attained passes at grade ‘A’ in both Caribbean Society and Politics and English and Communication Studies in the Associate Degree programme of the Barbados Community College. And, that person also would have attained a grade point average of not less than 3.8 per cent, in the Associate Degree programme.
Ms. McConney, who congratulated students for doing exceptionally well and parents for providing support, said she looked forward to Barbados elevating its national performance in CXC and CAPE to the pre-pandemic level of 2019 when there were 62 persons who received awards and there were 27 scholarships and 35 exhibitions.
She also stressed it was the Ministry intention to work assiduously with schools and institutions to improve performance in the core subjects, particularly Communication Studies and Caribbean Studies where over the past few years some challenges had been experienced that impacted the number of national awards to students.
