Mallet Marie tops Common Entrance Exams

Two students of the Pioneer Preparatory School have topped the 2015 Grade Six National Assessment Examinations (popularly known as Common Entrance) which was held on May 28 and May 29, 2015.

Mallet Marie, 11, and Adam Thomas, 10, placed first and second respectively in this year exam.

"I feel very proud of myself, I studied a lot more I did all of my homework I practiced in school a lot and I did my work very well," Mallet Marie told reporters at his school when the results were announced last week.

He said while preparing for the examinations he had to put his scout troop on that back burner but he has plans to return now that the exam is done.

Second place student, Adam Thomas who said that he also proud of his achievements told reporters that in preparing for the exam there are several things you should do including talking to your friends about it.

"You don't only just study, you have to talk about it, you have to talk to your friends about it, you have to think about it and then you study," he said.

"I get distracted easily and also I get grumpy when I study a lot so you just have to think about it and make little rhymes things like that to remember."

The other top students are: Hallie Francis, Samine Darroux and Sherdina Antoine from the Petite Savanne Primary School.

At a press conference on June 30, 2015 Chief Educational Officer Melena Fontaine said 532 females and 526 males i.e. 1058 students wrote the examinations on May 28 and 29, 2015.
She revealed that the top performing primary schools were: Pioneer Preparatory, Petite Savanne, Clifton, Giraudel , Convent Preparatory, St Joseph SDA, Ebenezar SDA, Berean Christian Academy and St Martin's Primary.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education Petter St. Jean said Government still believes in the integrity of the Grade Six National Assessment.

"We believe it still fulfils a very important function. The Grade Six National Assessment allows us to access our students' capabilities in four core subject areas after seven years of primary education," said St. Jean.

He said the examinations serve as an exit tool which allows the ministry to provide merit awards to the deserving students and at the same time gives the ministry the opportunity to identify the deficiencies in their system hereby enabling them to design strategies to address these deficiencies.

"The parents have played a significant role in the education of our children over the year's parental support is indeed very important and it ensures students success," St. Jean said.
On the basis of this year's results the Government has awarded scholarships to all the students who obtained four grade As or three As and one B or three As or one C or two As and two Bs.

Bursaries are to be awards to those students who obtained the equivalent of four Bs or better but did not qualify for the award of scholarship.

On this basis Government awarded 88 scholarships and 132 bursaries.