Dear Editor,
I take the creamy in a Guyana normally awash in the grimy. Perfect scores for a score of young Guyanese. It is very enriching to the soul! What can better such an achievement? Other than no bottom feeders at this level of academic endeavours? I pay homage to the 20 students, their teachers, their institutions of learning, their parents, and their cohorts of people who believed in them, helped them in every way in their Common Entrance journey. A record has been set. It could be hard to equal, tougher to surpass. Now for the Hard Truths behind these glistening stories.
To perform at such a stellar height in the core subjects speaks of much hard work, then some more. Heavy focus. Not a misstep. Not one slip. Not giving room for even for a teeny, weeny, itty-bitty mark to escape the grasp. Superlatives fade, flee. But to do so brilliantly involved much more, including some of the areas and elements that are in such disarray now, and I say such disregard also today.
First, it means that these 20 children read prodigiously; devoured everything that pertained to the challenges before them. Say reading in Guyana these days, and this may be the equivalent of cursing. I think that reading would involve books. I think that many of those books would have been in physical form, though nothing is wrong with reading from a phone or a laptop. In introducing books into this public service sharing, there is that component that must be visited. Something says that these 20 11-year-olds had little time, if any at all, to spend, to waste, on social media platforms, and with cyber age tools. Other than for purposes of research and adding to, or reinforcing, their storehouse of knowledge. The kind of knowledge that powers to a perfect score at the 2026 NGSA.
The point being made here is that the wizardry of modern technology has its pluses, and they can be immense. But there are those downsides. Lost time. Lost focus. Lost interest. And, inevitably, lost marks. With not a single mark lost, however computed, I will be bold and assert that these 20 youngsters put on hold social media and the cyber world, to aid sustained focusing on what came first: their studies. Begone the distractions. Be not near the confusions and damnations of a modern development that can eradicate all those old school habits, old school drives. Not just to participate. But to excel to the point of perfection.
Second, it called for a tremendous degree of discipline, to fuel the demands that go along with such a mentality. It required a supporting system that nurtures, that inspires, going that extra mile. Giving another half hour. Reading one more page of one more book. Then another. This needed an environment where there were teachers of calibre, parents of quality, and institutions of vigilance and devotion. In scanning the results of the Super20, something is conspicuous. They hail from within the vicinity and then some distance from Guyana’s capital city. Included in the roll call of success, of perfection, are learning institutions of a simpler, humbler, lower variety. Scattered across the three counties of Guyana. Some familiar names, some new names. These highfliers have emerged stronger and better from the ordeals of six years ago. One was the sweeping, taking no prisoners COVID-19 virus.
One of the drawbacks of 20 students simultaneously breaking the NGSA sound barrier is that others who did very well, excellently, but not that perfectly, get lost in the haze of glory. I think of them. Give them a big hand. Thanks for the efforts. Five years hence, there will be opportunity that challenges to shine brighter. To exceed the profiles of today. For those who didn’t do so well, those who are lost in the shuffle of celebrations, a word of gratitude. For trying. For giving honest effort. For extending themselves 100%, but did not come anywhere close to that grand piano of a figure. They count, too. I remember them. All are wished the best.