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alexk
Guest
Two years ago a group of young men in Maloney made local news when they celebrated New Year’s by shooting guns in the air. This time around a group of young men in Maloney is making news for a completely different reason. Instead of guns, this group was armed with the most powerful weapon; education.
Friends Taliq Singh, Shakir Solomon, Tijani Veronique and Kristoff Taitt, of Trinity College East, are being lauded for the 27 passes they attained collectively in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) after a photo of them was posted on social media.
On Friday, Manu John went to his mother’s Maloney home when he saw his nephew, Taliq, and his three schoolmates there.
The young men were there to tell her of their CSEC results.
CSEC results were released in T&T on Friday. Impressed by the success of the young men John said he decided to take them outside to take a photograph while he bought a round of Malta Carib for them to celebrate.
John then posted the photo on his Facebook page with the intention of sharing the young men’s success with his group of friends.
The post has now taken on a life of its own, John said. As of yesterday, the post was shared more than four thousand times.
“I was just sharing it for my friends to show them a positive side on Maloney,” John said.
John said he hopes the post being shared now will help other youths in Maloney and other areas in the country that are affected by crime to be motivated to overcome whatever challenges they face.
“This is the kind of things the youths should strive to be in the news for,” John said.
Trinity College East secured 82 per cent full certificates at CSEC.
Singh, who celebrated his birthday on Saturday, attained six passes in CSEC.
Solomon achieved eight passes while Veronique attained six and Taitt attained seven.
On Friday, Education Minister Anthony Garcia said this year’s CSEC results was the best this country has seen in the last decade.
Chief Education Officer Harrilal Seecharan said the ministry had recorded the highest CSEC pass rate with five and more subjects in the last ten years.
Seecharan said 60.78 per cent of students who wrote the examination obtained five and more subjects, while 56.47 per cent got five and more with Mathematics and English.
Seecharan noted that 51.93 per cent of boys who wrote the CSEC examination in 2018 “got five and more (subjects) with Mathematics and English, compared to last year’s 47.88 per cent.