Vreed-en-Hoop Primary School yesterday proved to be the best of the best in this year’s Competition, hosted by the National Centre for Edu-cational Resource Develop-ment (NCERD) in collaboration with the Demerara Lioness Club.
The semi-finals and finals both took place yesterday at the headquarters of NCERD, on Battery Road, Kingston, Georgetown yesterday.
In the semi-finals, St Aloysius Primary bested Mortice Primary while Vreed-en-Hoop Primary topped Timehri Primary. The best readers for these two rounds were Cynthia Greenidge of St Aloysius Primary, who secured 39 points out of 50 and Tara Ganesh of Vreed-en-Hoop with 41 points.
In the final round between St Aloysius and Vreed-en-Hoop, the former secured 73 points, while the latter gained 78 points, with Ganesh once again being named “best reader,” having secured 42 points.
As was the case in the previous rounds, the participants displayed excellent reading and spelling skills, but lagged in the area of comprehension.
This prompted the judges to reiterate to teachers and students alike the need for more attention to be paid to “understanding what is being read.”
Candace Vandeyar, a teacher from the winning school, praised the competition, saying that she thought it was a good gesture by the Lioness Club. She added that she was happy that they included outlying schools, especially those from Region 3. She also said that the competition has shown her that “there’s a lot that teachers need to do, especially in the area of comprehension.”
When asked how she felt about being the best reader, a beaming Tara shyly stated: “I feel very nice.”
Chairperson of the Youth Committee within the Demerara Lioness Club Cindy Bovell commended all the participating students, while noting that “it’s not easy to read before an audience.” She added that the Club members wished to thank bookseller Lloyd Austin, who has been donating book prizes for as long as the competition has been running. She also expressed gratitude to President Bharrat Jagdeo, who donated
the trophies for the runners-up as well as Neil Kumar, Carib-bean International Distri-buters Incorporated, C&V Shipping, Bermudez and the Guyana Reading and Research Centre.
The award ceremony is scheduled for Friday at the same venue.
