Top scorers celebrate P.S.E. results

Progressive education experts have for years told us that standardised tests are at best a mediocre measure of academic performance, let alone an accurate indicator of future achievement. So why do we so anxiously await the results? Because as humans, we love to keep score. Today the 2007 Primary School Examination results were released and as a whole Belizean standard six students improved significantly in English and Science, scored slightly higher in Social Studies, and remained questionable in Math. We’ll save the analysis for tomorrow, as today belonged to the top students.

Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Meet twelve year old Xux Ek Novelo. This standard six student of Hummingbird Elementary School topped six thousand one hundred and two students when she scored three hundred and seventy-four out of a possible four hundred points on her P.S.E.

Xux Ek Novelo, Highest Scorer, P.S.E.
“Overwhelmed, excited. I feel like crying a bit because it’s so happy. I really so happy.”

Kendra Griffith
“Did you expect it any at all?”

Xux Ek Novelo
“I expected to come in the top ten, but not specifically number one, but I still worked hard to try and get it.”

Kendra Griffith
“You didn’t have any difficulties with the exam?”

Xux Ek Novelo
“Well not really, the math was the easiest part though.”

… Which explains why Xux Ek also tied for top honours in that subject by scoring one hundred percent. Hortense Wade is one of her teachers.

Hortense Wade, Teacher, Hummingbird Elementary
“I am not really surprised at her performance at all. She is really an outstanding student. She is focussed, she’s organized, and she has a lot of parental support, a lot and I think that is what helped her.”

Another Hummingbird student, twelve year old Adrian Young, was also a big scorer. He shares the title of top science student with Milhelm Hernandez of Holy Redeemer Primary. Both scored a hundred percent.

Kendra Griffith
“How hard did you study for it?”

Adrian Young, Top Science Student
“Very hard, but I had a lot of help.”

Kendra Griffith
“Who did you get a lot help from?”

Adrian Young
“My parents, my friends, and the schools and the teachers.”

And the good news kept coming for Hummingbird as today it was also reported that they ranked second out of the top five performing schools. Jamuna Vasquez is the Principal.

Jamuna Vasquez, Principal, Hummingbird Elementary
“I am very proud, I am very proud of my students and also of my staff. I have to give kudos to my staff. I have a lot of very experienced teachers and they have been working meticulously over the past four or five years since we’ve been taking P.S.E. And not just in standard six, but they start all the way from infants, going through the middle division, looking at our weaknesses and working hard on those areas.”

Over at the Bernice Yorke Institute of Learning it was also a triple celebration: they had the second highest overall P.S.E. scorer, a student who received a hundred percent in math, and they were rated as the top performing school.

Sherry Ali, Principal, Bernice Yorke Institute of Learning
“We’ve always ranked within the top ten. The highest we came before was third and this year we were aiming between like I said before, one and three, so being number one is good.”

Goolue Xie, Second Highest P.S.E. Score
“I studied a lot harder than a usually did because I wanted to do good, more than good, I wanted to do excellent.”

That hard work paid off for eleven year old Goolue Xie as she took second place after garnering three hundred and seventy-two points on her exams.

Goolue Xie
“I am feeling very excited and very please. I didn’t really expect to come in second, but I feel so happy right now.”

Kendra Griffith
“Who would you say assisted you the most while studying?”

Goolue Xie
“I would say my brother because he helped me by pointing out what I did wrong and why and how to redo it in a more efficient manner and my teacher, because she has helped me along the way so much. She taught me most of everything I know and I would really like to thank her.”

As for classmate Annie Li, today she was celebrating her hundred percent score in math … and her birthday.

Annie Li, Top Math Student
“Today I am thirteen years old, so it was a surprise birthday gift. … I cried.”

Kendra Griffith
“Why cry?”

Annie Li
“I don’t know, tears of joy.”

Kendra Griffith
“So, it was super easy for you?”

Annie Li
“Yeah, I learnt everything thanks to my teacher.”

Sherry Ali
“They worked extremely hard, they put in their time, they were motivated and dedicated.”

Feeling just as good about their third place student, was the staff at Queen Square Anglican. Twelve year old Aaron Stock received three hundred and seventy-one points.

Aaron Stock, Third Highest PSE Scorer
“I was more nervous getting the results than taking the actual exam.”

Kendra Griffith
“How did you react when you found out the good news?”

Aaron Stock
“I jumped up and I screamed and I was very happy, very happy.”

Kendra Griffith
“Was it unexpected?”

Aaron Stock
“Yes I was. It came as a shocker because I thought that I would pass, but I didn’t know that I would do this well so I was very happy too, again.”

Beverly Stock, Aaron’s Mother
“I always quarrel with him because he does not like to study, so he didn’t really study hard.”

Kendra Griffith
“So did he manage to come in third?”

Beverly Stock
“I guess he pays attention in class and that’s the main point. He pays attention in class and then he was attending Mr. Acevedo’s evening classes.”

Aaron is the first Queen Square student to place in the top ten in over a decade.

Lauburn Brown Martinez, Teacher, Queen’s Square Anglican
“Very proud, not only myself, but all the standard six teachers in the school are proud, because being public school we have excelled and it has shown that Anglican Schools can do something.”

Aaron shares his third place ranking with Yasell Acosta of Louisiana Government School in Orange Walk. Other top students include Diomne Habet of Belize Elementary who received the highest score in English with ninety-five percent, and Lucio Nunez of San Pedro R.C. School, who showed ninety-eight percent in Social Studies. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.

Belize Elementary School, Gallon Jug Community School, and Solid Rock Christian Academy, ranked third, fourth, and fifth respectively as the top performing schools.