By Shanique Richards
St. Kitts Reporter
The annual Academic Excellence Recognition Awards Ceremony was held on Monday at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort. At the ceremony certificates of recognition and trophies were handed out to 34 deserving individuals for their outstanding performances in this year CXC examinations.
Among the thirty-four were 12 teachers from the nation’s high schools who made noticeable contributions to assist their students. Also at the ceremony the state scholar, Kindra Liburd, and runner-up state scholar, Kenrod Roberts, were applauded for their hard work throughout the school year.
This recognition programme which was started by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in 1986 was first sponsored by the Kellog Foundation in the USA and after their funds were exhausted, Cable & Wireless, formerly called SKANTEL, assumed full sponsorship of the programme and had sustained this commitment over the past 18 years.
Several dignitaries attended the ceremony including Honourable Sam Condor, Minister of Education, Honourable Joseph Parry, Premier of Nevis, Franklyn Brand, President of Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Johnathon Bass, Acting Chief Executive of Cable & Wireless and other officials.
In his welcome remarks, Franklyn Brand noted that the programme remains the only recognition programme in the federation.
“I am quite certain that all parents, students, teachers and education officials gathered here are beaming with pride and satisfaction at the excellent performance of the students and teachers being honoured here this evening.
“The Chamber of Industry and Commerce is indeed proud as well. This programme which was established 21 years ago is still the only federal Academic Recognition Programme in the country.
“It has given us confidence with its excellent track record and it shows that we can indeed do a few things right after being able to sustain this academic programme year after year. We are eagerly anticipating the silver anniversary of the programme as this ceremony continues to rise over the years,” Brand said.
The Honourable Sam Condor congratulated the awardees and the partners for making the programme a success and also mentioned that the programme is yet another improvement that the ministry has taken.
“We are gathered here in our numbers to recognize and celebrate achievement par excellent not only of students and teachers but the partnership of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Cable & Wireless for investing their intellectual capital and for promoting meaningful and measurable partnership. This annual occasion is one of the various reforms that the Ministry of Education is undertaking,” Condor said.
Rev. Denise Lewis, a featured speaker, reminded the students, parents and well wishers about the standards for excellence as she humoured the audience with her stern speech on eliminating distractions in order to have continued growth.
“If you are to overcome and really achieve you got to get rid of the distraction. So if you have a guy that you really like and he is not interested in helping you to study you got to dump him, just tell the girl beside you dump him!
“And if you really like this girl and whenever you and her get together she has another agenda that will cause you to become disengaged from your vision and task then you got to let her go, there are so many other beautiful fishes in the sea guys. You must learn the concept of giving up a little bit in order to gain a lot,” she said.
In an interview after the ceremony, Premier Honourable Joseph Parry commented on the growth of education in the federation.
“I think that the standards this year were very high as the state scholar received all grade ones and the Minister of Education has informed me that the overall results in St. Kitts were the best results and this was the same in Nevis so this is a really good sign for the education this year,” said Parry.
