Dear Editor,
Once again, SVN excels: 100% passes in English Language, 95% passes in Mathematics, 95% Matriculation, 96% over passes, grades 1-3. That has always been the case and expectations have not been disappointed.
While controversy rages over this year’s CXC results with some city schools registering strong protests over the grades awarded their students, students of Saraswati Vidya Niketan (SVN), popularly known as ‘the Swami school’, at Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara continue to generate outstanding results. Of the 61 students who wrote the CSEC examinations, 15 of them achieved 10 grade ones and more with four of them getting 17 grade ones and two grade twos each. This year their best student was Ms. Atishta Seenarine who copped 17 grade ones and two grade twos with 13 distinctions. Atishta, who will be 17 on January 31, 2021, hails from Ocean View, West Coast Demerara.
The school registered 96.60% overall pass rate, grades 1 to 3, and a matriculation rate of 95.08%. Of the 58 students who matriculated, that is, passed with English and Mathematics, 56 did so with 10 subjects and more. Forty of these 58 students are females. In the two key subject areas, English Language and Mathematics, students’ performance continues to improve. There was 100% pass in English Language with over 90% in grades ones and twos alone. Mathematics results increased from 91.86% to 95.08% with 86% pass in grades ones and twos.
In all, there were 100% passes in eleven subject areas including Agriculture Science with 84% passes in grades ones and twos, Biology which registered 88% grade ones, EDPM with 100% grade ones (a feat now for three consecutive years), HSB with 93% grade ones, Information Technology with 75% grade ones, Integrated Science with 88% in grades ones and twos, Office Administration with 79% grade ones, Physics with 70% grade ones and twos, Principles of Business with 94% in grades ones and twos, and Social Studies with 85% grades ones and twos. All the remaining 9 subjects recorded over 90% passes with the exception of Spanish in which students secured 81% passes.
SVN has an open admission policy regardless of NGSA scores and in this current class of 2020 are a number of students even without any NGSA scores. The average NGSA score for this present batch is 471, with 360 being the lowest and 526 the highest. One of the great achievements of SVN is its ability to motivate and its commitment to work with students with the lowest NGSA scores, and enable them to do well at the exams. That by itself is an incredible achievement.
This year Chris Dundas and his sister Cristol of St. Cuthbert’s Mission, with 360 and 384 NGSA marks respectively, matriculated with 14 and 13 subjects respectively, with Chris scoring a grade 3 in Applied Mathematics. Similarly, Said Jeffers (NGSA 401), Nishida Persaud (NGSA 419) and Devikie Singh (NGSA 421) matriculated with 8, 13 and 14 subjects respectively. Of the students who had no NGSA scores, Ziphena Bailey and Shivani Ramautar matriculated with 10 and 14 subjects respectively.
We salute the students of the class of 2020 and wish them well in whatever field of studies they wish to pursue. We also commend the teachers for their devotion and commitment to ensuring the excellent overall performance for which SVN has built a strong reputation. Finally, we thank the founder and principal, Swami Aksharananda for his leadership and guidance.
Yours faithfully,
Ramesh Gampat and Somdat Mahabir