NGHS LEADS HONOUR PARADE
 TOP CAPE POSITIONS 2013

 The Caribbean Examination Council has published on their website a listing of the “top candidates by subject” in the 2013 regional exams. It lists 486 best-scoring positions, in 46 exams, in 83 Caribbean high schools, amongst 8 qualifying countries as follows:
486 Total Best-scoring Positions
300 Trinidad&Tobago
140 Jamaica
28 Barbados
10 Guyana
4 Antigua
2 StKitts&Nevis
1 Belize
1 Grenada
It’s difficult to compare countries without considering many other factors, chief amongst them, population. One can only assume that the smaller countries are just as excited about their few places earned as the larger ones are, and offer congratulations to all.

It may be appropriate, though, for the larger, better-established schools, regardless of country, to compare their own achievement with that of peer institutions. Here we are looking at about 11 well-known schools in TT, 10 in Jamaica, and two each in B’dos and Guyana. Comparable TT schools seem to average more top spots per school, than other territories, for whatever reasons.

Within TT, the traditional schools all average between 15 and 25 spots, eg., Hillview(17), Presentation Chaguanas(21), and Lakshmi Girls Hindu(15), St Joseph’s Convent, POS(25), SanFdo(20). Naps(19) and St Mary’s(16) held their ground. SAGHS(25) and NGHS(28) edged out the boys’ schools by significant margins, the latter winning the honour of the school with the most top spots, in TT and the Caribbean. Iere secured 3 places; QRC was a surprise with only one.

Concentrating on Naparima, it is noticeable that a significant majority of places were in Math and Information Management. These are good subjects to excel in. However, there are many other subject areas where Naps appears to be absent in terms of the top spots. Even within our two dominant subjects, we have plenty of company: Hillview actually got 4 spots in Pure Math Unit 1, compared with our three.

Naps has done well, but cannot rest on past laurels. There are new challengers in the field, and our current degree of success seems dependent mostly on just two competitive areas. Perhaps we need to widen our field of top subjects! Naps 19 top-spots were earned across 7 subjects, whereas NGHS 28 spots covered 14 subjects. Commendably, SAGHS scored 5 places in Chemistry, 5 in Math, and 5 in French.

Given that Naps receives the best students out of Common Entrance, perhaps structure or methods may need a fresh look in some areas where we should be excelling. We should also be planning ahead to ensure that we retain our strength in Math and Information Technology. Would fraternal collaboration between NC and NGHS, in teaching particular subjects, work to the further advantage of both? This would not be a completely new idea - in the 1930's, teachers of NC taught at NTC and NGHS.

As always, their are constraints and limitations to our endeavour. Nevertheless, these apply to everyone, and despite them we must focus our objectives and our mission. In the company of our historical sister schools, we should aspire to be secondary education leaders in the Caribbean. We should set about to implement policies, strategies and methods to achieve and sustain this goal.

NC | NGHS | SAGHS | HILLVIEW | IERE     << click to list students
NAPARIMA BOYS IN TOP CAPE POSITIONS 2013
NCACCOUNTING-2ABDUL-SALEEM ALI
NCAPP MATH-1STEFAN SHIVA BALDEO
NCAPP MATH-1HIMCHAND SHIVA PERSAD
NCAPP MATH-1JUSTIN RICK MOHAN DWARIKA
NCAPP MATH-1MANDELA MAKESI PATRICK
NCAPP MATH-2KELAN A MC LEAN
NCENGLISH-1JOSH JEREMY RAGBIR
NCENGLISH-2JEAN-LE JESUS DES ETAGES
NCINFO TECH-1JEREMY NATHANIEL NEPTUNE
NCINFO TECH-1JUSTIN A Z SHIM
NCINFO TECH-1MANDELA MAKESI PATRICK
NCINFO TECH-2JEAN-LE JESUS DES ETAGES
NCINFO TECH-2JUSTIN A Z SHIM
NCINFO TECH-2RAVI NICHOLAS MONGRU
NCPHYSICS-1HIMCHAND SHIVA PERSAD
NCPURE MATH-1ANTHONY LYNDON JAGDEO
NCPURE MATH-1HIMCHAND SHIVA PERSAD
NCPURE MATH-1MANDELA MAKESI PATRICK
NCSOCIOLOGY-2JOSH JEREMY RAGBIR
Data is from CXC website.