NASSAU, BAHAMAS – As outstanding students were celebrated on Monday for excellent results in the 2018 Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) and Bahamas General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) exams, Minister of Education Jeff Lloyd advised students to embrace the opportunities that life has to offer.
“Believe in yourself; exploit your creativity for the benefit for our country. Realize that this is a life-long, life-wide journey and you have just begun,” said Minister Lloyd.
The awardees are the top performers representing public and independent schools from among 11,000 plus students who sat BJCs and over 6,000 who sat BGCSEs in 2018. Parents, teachers, school administrators, students and Ministry of Education officials witnessed them receiving their awards, Monday, at William Johnson Auditorium, Church of God Convention Centre.
The theme for the event was ‘Rewarding Excellence in National Examinations’. E. P. Roberts 72-member Primary School Choir and T.A. Thompson Junior High School Band entertained the audience.
Minister Lloyd said the occasion was to celebrate the excellence of the students, teachers, administrators, community, and policy makers.
“Excellence is not what you do, but how you do what you do.”
He told recipients that he was “proud” of them and warned them of the many impediments along the road to excellence with number one being the cell phone.
“The cell phone is the number one tool for excellence and the number one tool for distraction,” he said.
He underscored that education is everyone’s business.
“It does not reside in the exclusive domain of the Minister of Education, the Ministry of Education; the unions. It is everybody’s business. Everybody must become involved in the process of education.”
Minister Lloyd congratulated the parents and informed them of their fundamental obligation to encourage their children and to assist them in becoming all that they were designed to be.
Prachi Kondapuram, a student of Queen’s College received the Paul L. Adderley award for Best Overall Performance in the 2018 BGCSE examinations (13 As) in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. She also received the Carol Hanna award for Best Overall Performance in the 2018 BGCSE examinations for Independent Schools.
The Marjorie Davis award went to Jana McCardy of Central Eleuthera High School for Best Overall Performance in the 2018 BGCSE examinations (9 As, 1 B, 3 Cs) for Government Schools.
Emily Kemp of Forest Heights Academy in Abaco received the award as the candidate with Overall Best BJC results (10 As) in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas for 2018. She also received the award for the 2018 candidate with Best BJC Overall Results (10 As) in Independent schools.
Ethan Bunbury of D.W. Davis Junior High School is government school candidate with the 2018 Best BJC Overall Results (9 As, 1B), and government school male candidate with the Best BJC Overall Results (9As, 1B).
Jasmine Adamson, a former student of H. O. Nash Junior High School, also achieved government school candidate with the Best BJC Overall Results (9 As, 1 B) for 2018.
This story was contributed by Kathryn Campbell of Bahamas Information Services
