Students to receive cash and calculators

The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines will reward 482 students for good performance in external exams written earlier this year.{{more}}

The students, who, by the end of October will each receive $500, have each achieved a minimum standard set by the Ministry of Education.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Laura Browne announced that 141 students from the Division of Arts, Sciences and General Studies of the SVG Community College had achieved the standard of two A’level or Caribbean Advanced Proficiency (CAPE) passes, as well as a pass in General Paper or Communication Studies.

Additionally, 341 secondary school graduates will receive similar cash awards, having been successful in five or more Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, two of which are English A and Mathematics.

Browne noted that there is a marked increase in the number of students receiving awards at the secondary level, as in 2008, only 239 met the set criteria. This she attributed to the increase in the number of students entering secondary schools five years ago.

Introduced in 2005 as “another dimension in the education revolution,” the awards are seen as a means of motivating students to excel.

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary also announced that the 2,327 students entering the first form of secondary schools this year will receive calculators as a gift from the government before the end of the month.

This initiative was introduced in 2007 in an effort to stem the rise in unsatisfactory performance in Mathematics in the school system, as it is believed that access to calculators early in a child’s life will help them grasp and develop a love for Mathematics.

In 2007, 2,500 first formers received solar powered scientific calculators.