Bilingual student cops 5th spot in CPEA

Prayash Parida came to St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), in 2022 and with a little over a year to adapt to being schooled here. He, however, went on to take the fifth spot at this year’s Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA).

Prayash, a student of the Windsor Primary School, is 11-years-old and was born in India. He scored full marks on the CPEA Science paper, had 71 out of 75 for Mathematics, 71 out of 75 for Language Arts, and 67 out of 75 for Social Studies.

“I was at my house, and I was about to go to bed…my mom told me I came in the top 10…I said it couldn’t be true.

“I felt excited and happy, but I expected to do better. I am not exactly disappointed because I am happy with the scores,” Prayash told SEARCHLIGHT.

The son of Dr. Pranaya Kumar and Nalini Jena Parida said in preparation for the CPEA he would take notes of each subject and do a lot of research on the topics, did past papers and was quizzed by his parents.

“For students who want to do well, stay focused in class so to not miss what the teacher says, and make notes for yourself and study with your parents,” Prayash. He is looking forward to entering the St Vincent Grammar School in September.

He said the CPEA was really challenging and he was pleasantly surprised by the Language Art exam. The scholar is multi-lingual; he speaks Hindi, Odia and some Bengali.

Prayash hopes to become a scientist, with a focus on technology. He said leading up to the CPEA, he did some fine art for recreation, but discontinued it to focus on the exams.

“The teachers helped me a lot with the exams and studying and gave me notes which were very helpful,” said the student, who resides at New Montrose.