The Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN) Secondary School celebrated its 11th graduation ceremony with President David Granger as guest speaker two Sundays ago.
According to a press release from the Ministry of the Presidency, the SVN, a privately operated institution marked its 11th graduation ceremony producing two of the country’s highest performers in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certi-ficate (CSEC) examinations.
Victoria Najab earned 21 grade one passes while Vamanadev Hiralal succeeded with 19 grade ones and one grade two for the institution. In addition to receiving the President’s Award, at the best graduating student, Najab was promised by the President a gift of $100,000 to assist with her Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) studies. Hiralal, on the other hand, earned the Prime Minister’s Award for his accomplishments.
Granger during his remarks, said if Guyana were to become a really developed nation, it has to do as the colonial government did “to create an educated, scientific elite by putting in front of the students the resources [they need.]”
Further, the school’s Principal Swami Aksharananda noted, “while at the national level and in the region, the pass rate at English and Math are around 50 percent, at SVN, in these two subjects, we have consistently produced the highest pass rate, with English at 86 percent and Math 92 percent.”
In the coming year, the Principal said, “his institution will be striving to surpass Queen’s College, the only school that is ahead in terms of pass rate in the country.”
Of the 12, 600 students who sat the CSEC in Guyana, 47 earned passes with 11 grade ones or more and 23 percent of those students were from SVN. The institution also managed to produce 14 students with passes of 12 subjects or more at CSEC all of whom had only attained average National Grade Six Assessment marks in the low 400’s.
As valedictorian, Najab told her peers, “You are indeed, at the beginning of yet another stage of a lifelong process of learning… Today we are not only celebrating our own success, but we are making a great achievement for our country…our accomplishments are Guyana’s triumph.”
Najab someday hopes to become a petroleum engineer.
