When the results of Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations were released last month, Houston Secondary was not featured among the schools turning out top performers.
However, almost a decade since its students began sitting the CSEC exams, what some consider a “cowboy school” has been continuing to achieve small victories.
Houston Secondary, which is a C-grade school, has three programmes, including a six-year programme that caters for students who would have been left behind and prepares them for promotion to grade seven; and a Secondary Competency Certificate Programme (SCCP) that is offered at grades nine and ten, where the students do their four core subjects and an elective. Upon completing this programme, children can choose whether they want to continue on to the third programme or not, which is writing CSEC. If they choose to leave having written the SCCP, they can go on to pursue studies at a technical facility, such as the Carnegie School, the Guyana Technical Institute, GITC, or Kuru Kuru Cooperative College.
This year, Houston’s success stories include four students who overcame their own struggles to secure passes in all their subjects at the exams.
They are valedictorian Shondell McBeth, Amelia Pollard, Latchmin Mohitram, and Malisha Thomas.
McBeth secured passes in eight subjects, including a Grade One in Principles of Business, Grade Twos in Mathematics, Office Administration, Food Nutrition & Health, and Family & Resource Manage-ment Technical, and Grade Threes in English A, Social Studies and Integrated Science.
The youngest of six children, the shy young woman posited that her success was attained through hours of studying, extra lessons and dedicated teachers who refused to give up on her. It was no easy feat keeping up with assignments, SBAs and studying she said, but with persistence she was able to overcome. As exams approached, Shondell, 16, studied sometimes until two in the mornings and again at five, after putting in three hours of sleep or less. And if that wasn’t enough for a teen to handle, her family got devastating news nine months prior to her sitting examination that her mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Battling back tears, Shondell shared of caring for her mother in the final months of her life. Before leaving for school, she saw to it that her mother was fed and tidied. Some days she’d be absent from afternoon school sessions as she would have to take her ailing mother to doctor appointments or when she was really weak to be given saline.
“She passed away the morning that I wrote English A, before I left to go to school…,” a still visibly shaken McBeth said. “I had to stay focused. I kept praying all through for strength and kept telling myself that I had to do it for her if no one else. I was close with her, being the youngest.”
Her sisters, she said, encouraged her to do her best despite all that was happening. She added that while it was no bed of roses, the past five years at Houston Secondary were a wonderful experience. She mentioned that she had amazing friends and teachers, particularly her form one teacher, Miss Ruth Elgin, who had always been exceptionally helpful whenever the need arose. Never fond of Math, Shondell confessed that she did miserably in the subject but by fourth form she realised that if she were ever going to be successful in life then she’d better put more effort into the hated subject. Constant practice of formulas and taking on Math challenges would land a pass in the subject.
She didn’t get the Grade One she wanted but the Two is enough. “I’m proud of myself,” she stated.
McBeth, who hopes to have a career in management someday, plans to first pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management at the University of Guyana (UG) and though she doesn’t quite know as yet how she’ll be able to finance this dream of hers, she’s certain that she’ll make it happen.
Mohitram secured passes in seven subjects: She gained Grade Twos in Social Studies and Family & Resource Management Technical, and threes in Mathematics, English Language, Integrated Science, Human & Social Biology, and Agricultural Science.
At the beginning of her education at the school, Mohitram said that she wasn’t all too excited as there were many negative comments about the school. But all the talk meant nothing eventually after she came to learn how caring the teachers were.
Mohitram noted that the teachers paid special interest in them and one teacher in particular, Miss Daniels, helped her make a study timetable when she was in form two. The timetable would help her sit her third term exams and by the time she was preparing for CSEC she made herself one. Latchmin’s day saw her rising from bed at four in the morning to study until she was ready for school, then again during school whenever there wasn’t class. In the evenings, she’d take an hour revising her books and used the remaining three hours until 10pm in the night doing homework and SBAs.
Like McBeth, her most difficult subject would be Mathematics. To tackle this, she ensured to get the past Math CSEC papers and continually worked on them. Whenever she came across a problem she couldn’t understand, she went to her teachers. “Miss Ruth and Sir Clarenton helped me. Miss Ruth taught Maths and Sir Clarenton taught Integrated Science but he know Maths,” the young woman stated.
She plans to take computer classes before going on to study at the Cyril Potter College in hopes of becoming an educator and making a difference in the lives of children.
‘Many ups and downs’
Amelia Pollard secured six subjects when she sat the recent exams. Her passes are in Maths, English A, Integrated Science, Social Studies, Principles of Business, and Office Administration. “School was a bit challenging. There were many ups and downs but I had to work hard to get where I am. When we needed help, we [sought] help from the teachers. There were two main teachers that pushed me and encouraged me the most. They were Miss Ruth and Miss Daniels”, Pollard said. Her routine, she said, saw her studying, praying and going to lessons. However, because of financial constraints, she was unable to attend all the extra classes and didn’t have the opportunity to go to the necessary ones. Given the situation, she took to studying most of the subjects on her own. For Mathematics and English Language, for which she was able to attend extra lessons, she attained Grade Twos while for the four remaining subjects Pollard obtained Grade Three passes.
Math was also her most challenging subject and to succeed in this she took lessons. In the beginning, it was embarrassing, she noted, while explaining that because she was so far behind, she had to sit in the classes for those in forms Three and Four. But realising that she had to put pride aside to stay focused, she did just that.
Pollard added that persons should refrain from dwelling on naysayers or just mentally block them out when unable to get away from certain situations. This is what she herself had to do. “Sometimes when… travelling to school in the minibuses I’d be hearing, ‘Oh, Houston School is a cowboy school. Those [dunce] head children don’t know anything and stuff.’ At first, I was bothered by it but then I realised that no matter what you do, people are going to talk. It’s not how you start the race, it’s how you finish it. I used their discrimination to build myself and as a challenge to prove them wrong. I may be from Houston but Houston has potential. Sometimes all children really need is the encouragement and for others to have [faith] in them,” she said.
Pollard, who comes from a single-parent home and is her mother’s only child, has applied to Bertram Collins College, where, if accepted, she hopes to attend for a year before moving on to UG. Pollard has a couple of careers in mind though not in similar fields. The teen related that initially she wanted to be an actress but many persons have dissuaded her from the idea since it was said that a person may not be able to thrive from such a career in Guyana. She also wanted to become an immigration officer but after a work study attachment at the department she was informed that they were not accepting new recruits. As a result, for now her mind is set on furthering her studies.
With passes in six subjects also, Malisha Thomas is overjoyed to be among Houston Secondary’s top four this year. She secured a Grade Two in Principle of Business and Grade Threes in Mathematics, English Language, Integrated Science, Social Studies and Office Administration.
Unlike the other students, Maths is one of her two favourite subjects; the other being Science. Despite enjoying the subjects, Malisha said she couldn’t put in the studying she’d like because most of her time was spent at lessons once school was over. As exams got nearer, she recalled extra lessons going from 5:30 pm until 11:30pm sometimes. The young woman noted by the time she got to her Alexander Village home, she was too tired to get much, if any, revision in.
“I wish I could have gotten more studying in or done more subjects but I’m happy [nonetheless]. Miss Ruth was very encouraging. She pushed us to do our best….in fact she treated us like her own children. If it’s not her class period to teach and the teacher [assigned] for that period is absent, she would take over that period and teach more….she teaches Maths. If she notices that we don’t study much, she’d remain in class and see that we study our books. Sometimes she have us quizzes to help us understand our work”, Malisha said of her beloved past teacher.
Asked what she intends to do now that she’s completed school, she adds, “I’m applying for jobs so that I can work and have my own money and study while I work. I don’t want to pressure my dad and my grandmother. My dad doesn’t have a [steady] job and my grandmother has a small cooking business so I prefer to take that responsibility of finding the money to further my studies [upon] myself.”
Hopeful for a career as a flight attendant, Malisha wishes to study one or more foreign languages as soon as she’s able to pay for classes. In addition to this, she intends to take courses in Information Technology.
‘Saw the potential’
Meanwhile, outgoing Principal Lavern Carryl also shared similar views to some of the teens about rushing to judgment about lower grade schools and their students as she says the effort and determination put in by both students and teachers are what are important.
“There is a stigma attached to Houston students – ‘They’re dunce, they’re bad.’ We saw the potential in them and pushed them. We want to prove otherwise that good things are happening at Houston. We had teachers working with them at no cost. We even had teachers who were not directly timetabled to teach them but still took it upon themselves to work with them. Those children who did well are the children who would have made the sacrifices; they were willing to work, they were diligent. I’ve been at Houston Secondary for two years now and I’ve come to know the four girls who would have matriculated. They have always been working and Shondell McBeth has always been consistent and knew what she was about. As I leave, I would really love to see the standard maintained or better yet get higher. I would like the motto of this school to be realised and that is ‘Think Nobly, Act Nobly and Grow Nobly,’ Carryl said.
Houston Secondary School was started in 1905 under the leadership of the Methodist Church. The school was first housed in the lower flat of the church and accommodated some 70 students. Over the years, the school began to deteriorate and became unsafe. In May of 1966 as an Independence gift to the Government of Guyana Joseph Vieira (Sn) donated a parcel of land with the building on it for the purpose of a school. The school was a Community High School from 1975 to 2010, when it got secondary school status. The first batch of Houston Secondary students sat CSEC in the following year.
