ANSA McAL rewards top 15 NGSA performers

‒ Receive 0,000 bursary awards

The students who secured the top 15 spots at the 2017 National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) were honoured by ANSA McAL for their outstanding performances. The Caribbean-based company held its bursary awards for the top NGSA students who were awarded cheques of $100,000 each at the Kingston, Georgetown, headquarters of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) on Monday.

The top performers from this year’s NGSA receiving their bursary awards. Also in photo are Education Minister (ag) Nicolette Henry and ANSA McAL officials

As 13 of the 15 top performers who were present grinned from ear to ear upon receiving their monetary awards, acting Education Minister Nicolette Henry encouraged the recipients to put aside at least 80 per cent of the money towards their education.
“Learning is going to be a constant throughout your life from primary school days to university. It is a starting point because life is one big learning curve,” she noted.
The Minister also stressed that this year’s NGSA results were indeed encouraging, making reference to the increases in passes of over 50 per cent in subjects countrywide. Minister Henry however cautioned that more still needs to be done to address the lower performances that were recorded in the interior regions.
“There is still a lot of room for improvement and lot of work to be done across the country, more particularly in our hinterland region,” Minister Henry stressed.
ANSA McAL’s Non-alcoholic Brand Coordinator, Sean Abel, revealed that from 2018, the bursary programme will see hinterland students also receiving awards for their performances.
“Often times those students’ parents would like their kids to come out to attend Queen’s College but they cannot afford it because of distance; so it is our hope that from next year we will extend our bursary award to achieve that goal,” Abel indicated.
School of the Nations student Saskia Twahir was this year’s top performer with 524 marks out of the possible 529. Other students securing top places at Queen’s College were Clifton Bacchus of Maes Schools, Gabriella Roberts of Success Elementary, Xiana Chabilall of Graham’s Hall Primary, and Amelia Sugrim and Antonia Dey of the Academy of Excellence. The Education Ministry collaborated with the multinational entity to distribute the awards. At this year’s NGSA, a total of the 29 students gained spaces in the top 10 ranking schools throughout the country. Eight of these pupils belonged to public schools, while the remaining 21 emanated from private educational institutions. This total comprised students belonging to three regions, the majority of which are from Georgetown.