Thousands of standard 6 students are anxious tonight because tomorrow morning they will get their primary school examination results and as we first reported last night, Saint Joseph primary school dominated the exam.
In a remarkable feat, three out of the top four finishers are from saint Joseph. They are led by Racine Gillet who got 379 out of a possible 400 points on the high school entrance test which is equivalent to 95%. 5,818 standard six students took the exam in two parts, science and english in March and mathematics and social studies, earlier this month.
And the results are encouraging: the overall average increased 5% from last year's 50% to 54.9%. Most notable was the increase in the average score for the always troublesome mathematics which went from a dismal 41.9% last year to a sharply improved 54.9% this year; a 13%. English language's national average posted a modest gain of a couple percentage points while science had the highest national average at 66.6%. In its first year, social studies posted 60.6% rate of success.
They're hardly breathtaking, but for the first time in the test's four year history, educators are enjoying the news of an across the board improvement. No one was happier than St. Joseph's Racine Gillet when we broke the news to her that she had topped the PSE.
Racine Gillet, First Place in PSE
"I feel really good but I didn't expect to top the PSE, just to do good on it."
Keith Swift,
"What was the PSE like since they added a new subject. etc.?"
Racine Gillet,
"It was kind of difficult but I managed to do all the problems and it was okay."
Keith Swift,
"What was the hardest part of the test for you?"
Racine Gillet,
"I thought the hardest was the social studies but i don't really know why but most of the questions I knew and some of them were difficult."
Keith Swift,
"How hard did you study?"
Racine Gillet,
"Well I began studying a long time ago just by reading over my notes."
Keith Swift,
"Is there a secret to being the number student in Belize right now?"
Racine Gillet,
"I don't have a secret I just study hard and remembered what my teacher thought me."
Keith Swift,
"Since you are the number one student, what high school will you choose?"
Racine Gillet,
"Well my first choice was Saint Catherine's Academy and I will still go there."
As the top finisher Racine Gillet earned the Jane and Michael Nembhard award. And joining in the celebration with Racine at St. Joseph were classmates Han Lin-Yuen who tied for second with hero Balani from Holy Redeemer Primary School both earned 378 points and St. Joseph's Pedro Gonzalez placed fourth. We got reaction from St. Joseph's other two top finishers.
Han Lin Yuen, 2nd in PSE
"Well I feel happy and proud of my teachers who have helped me through this preparation and I would really like to thank them."
Keith Swift,
"Was there a secret to your success?"
Han Lin Yuen,
"Well it's just a goal for me in life at this Standard 6 and I really feel happy."
Keith Swift,
"Which high school will you go to?"
Han Lin Yuen,
"Saint John's College."
Pedro Gonzalez, 3rd Place in PSE
"I feel proud because my school helped me, my family helped, my friends helped me so I didn't let anybody down."
Keith Swift,
"Did you think you would do this good?"
Pedro Gonzalez,
"ll I couldn't count my chickens before they hatched so I just went along with it."
Keith Swift,
"Was there a secret to your success?"
Pedro Gonzalez,
"Well the secret is just studying."
Keith Swift,
"What high school will you go to?"
Pedro Gonzalez,
"Saint John's College."
Glorycela Torres, Principal - St. Joseph Primary School
"We feel really proud of our education that we give at St. Joseph and it's really rewarding at the end of the year when teachers and administration work together to get this type of result."
The Ministry of Education will release the official PSE results to the schools tomorrow.