Ministry of Education Announces Barbados Scholarship and Exhibition Winners Amidst CXC Exam Issues

The Ministry of Education announced this year’s Barbados Scholarship and Exhibition winners even as it continues to try to resolve issues related to students being “ungraded” in Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams.

Minister of Education Kay McConney, who announced on Thursday that there were 30 awardees – five with scholarships and 25 who received exhibition awards – said the ongoing issues with the CXC results had impacted on the delivery of the awards.

However, she said officials in her ministry were actively working to resolve the problems.

“We are having a meeting this (Thursday) afternoon with the parents of those students who were affected. The good news is that we have been able to resolve some of the problems.

“In fact, one of the reasons we delayed a little bit on bringing out the scholarships and exhibitions is because I wanted to make sure that none of those issues that related to either CAPE [Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations] or CSEC [Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate] would affect those persons who would be able to get scholarships [and exhibitions] today. Once I was certain that it wasn’t going to impact them, we went ahead,” she told the media following the ceremony at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College.

In addition to the five Barbados Scholarship winners – Jasmine Humphrey and Riya Yeddula of Harrison College; and Terricka Bradshaw and Cherisse Codrington of Queen’s College, all of whom attained Grade 1s in eight units of their programme; and Adam Leon of the Barbados Community College (BCC) who attained a grade point average of 4.0 – McConney announced that former Deighton Griffith Secondary School student Javani Alleyne was the recipient of the inaugural Errol Walton Barrow Scholarship.

The latter award, in honour of the life and work of the late Prime Minister, is to be given to qualified Barbadians who completed their education at a school established after 1951 (once referred to as newer secondary schools).

The scholarship will be awarded annually at the college or university level to a student who pursues technical, vocational, or other academic areas, at the associate and undergraduate degree levels.

Harrison College got the lion’s share – 13 – of the exhibitions: Najidah Austin, Jean-Pierre Blackett, Cherish-Amor Blades, Kyé Brathwaite, Sonali Chatrani, Wangari Dottin, Josiah Grannum, and Yeshua-Erchomai Hill, Kiara Hunte, Shomicha Jackson, Azaria Johnson, Allyah Sealy and Alexis Williams.

Six of the exhibition winners were from Queen’s College – Kaiéra Garnes, Zachary Gill, Éléna Scantlebury, Femi Vital, Samara Waithe, and McKenzie Yearwood.

There were two each from The St Michael School – Dominique Haynes and Jada Murray; Christ Church Foundation School – Rayna Clarke and Shaquan Forde; and the BCC – Rashon Barrow and Samuel Holder.

Eighteen of the awards were given to students who studied subjects pertaining to science and technology while nine of the awardees studied other subject areas.