Meet top scorers of the 2014 P.S.E.

The government school in Crooked Tree had an impromptu celebration on Thursday when they learnt from News Five that one of their own, Ashton Tillett had placed first in the Primary School Examinations for 2014. A review shows that while the results are not all that impressive this year, the placement of government institutions has improved at least among the top performers. Today, Duane Moody caught up with some of the top students. Here is that story.

Duane Moody, Reporting

The P.S.E. final scores are out and as far as the results go, this year, there has been a paradigm shift in the performance of private schools versus government schools. Of the eleven top students of the Primary School Examinations for 2014, only two are from private institutions; the remaining nine are all from government schools. Second place was taken by Andres Hung of Lady of Guadalupe in Cayo and Bernice Yorke’s fourteen-year-old Kenyah Hyde.

Kenyah Hyde, 2^ndPlace, P.S.E. 2014

Kenyah Hyde

“I was like shocked surprised that I did that well. You put in all the hard work, but when you find out that you did that well, wow. It feels great to know that all the hard work paid off.”

Duane Moody

“Tell us about the preparation that you put into it along with your teacher and the school?”

Kenyah Hyde

“Well you know, being at home, sometimes I would be like reading and my mother was like Kenyah come, put the book away; time to study. Always there pushing me to study more and put in extra work and peers were there helping and teachers; so always there encouraging.”

Majority of the top performers are also not from schools within Belize City. The top scorer is twelve year old Ashton Tillett from the Crooked Tree Government School. This is the first year that the school has ranked first in the exams and we captured that excitement.

Ashton Tillett

Ashton Tillett, Top Scorer, P.S.E. 2014 [File: June 12^th, 2014]

“I feel totally satisfied and it is a great feeling to finally reach a goal that you have tried so hard for. It is a good feeling. I prayed to God and I asked him to be there for me. I couldn’t have done this without some special teachers from school; Verla Jex and all the other teachers that supported me with additional morning classes. I think what helped me on the English is because I like to read a lot and I like to study. All were easy except for the Math Two which was a little bit challenging because I think they put a piece of high school work in it and I think that was what took me down a little. To me, the subject that was easiest was English. I am always good at English and most of the subjects.”

Also making that distinction is twelve-year-old Avaunt Kelly of Queen Square Government School, who tied at fifth with St. Andrews Anglicans Veronica Peresedova. Extra hours of studying and full support from the school are what got him a total score of three hundred and sixty-five points. Kelly says that Paper Two of the Math exam was difficult for him.

Avaunt Kelly

Avaunt Kelly, 5^th Place, P.S.E. 2014

“I felt excited because I didn’t expect to come in that close to first place.”

Duane Moody

“Tell us about the work you put in to get to that point.”

Avaunt Kelly

“Seven-thirty in the morning had to be at class and plus in the evening, no TV; no games…just studying straight through the night until ten.”

Duane Moody

“What for you was the most difficult part of the exams?”

Avaunt Kelly

“Most difficult part of the exams was the mathematics paper two, which was very hard.”

Janine Sosa, Teacher, Queen Square Gov’t School

“The first step was to totally get rid of that mental block most children have towards with mathematics. I think we always drill math, but we fail to realize that if the kids don’t actually understand what the question is saying then there is no way that they will try to attempt and get a correct answer. So first was to get rid of that mental block and just show them exactly how process is done to reach the correct answer for a mathematical question.”

Duane Moody

Janine Sosa

“Now Avaunt is of course making the school proud and of course putting it on the map once again like you guys did in 2008. What can you say to his work and him as a student?”

Janine Sosa

“He has always been an exceptional student from infant coming up. So we had always sign that you know what, Avaunt is the person that is going to top this P.S.E. and so said, so done. When we got the results yesterday, everybody was so excited and we are so proud of him.”

Congratulations to all students who sat the 2014 exams. Duane Moody for News Five.