“Most of our teachers are not happy with receiving students with scores of below 500,” said Principal of President’s College (PC), Ms Carlyn Canterbury, as she commented on the perceived lowered status of the school.Canterbury has been Principal at the Golden Grove,Cheap Jerseys Supply, East Coast Demerara, school for the past four years. According to her, time and again, requests have been made to the Ministry of Education for pupils with scores 500 and above to be given the opportunity to pursue their secondary education there.She is convinced that the status of the school was lowered because of the quality of students that are placed there. The cut off score for attending the school over the years has been around 491. “We didn’t necessarily ask, for the longest while, for the top (performers) but we’ve asked for at least over 500,” related Canterbury during a recent interview with this publication.PC in its early days was regarded the premier secondary education institution and thus accepted only the top two percent of the country’s common entrance (now National Grade Six Assessment) performers.Students were then offered residential placement thus allowing for their schooling experience to be closely monitored with the aim of yielding the best possible results.But the fact that the school today accepts primary school leavers with scores below 500 in essence, places it below the standard of the country’s top performing schools including: Queen’s College, the Bishops’ High, St. Stanislaus College, St. Rose’s High and St. Joseph’s High. PC is however recognized as the top secondary school on the East Coast of Demerara.Canterbury noted that it would have been a plausible move if PC was allowed to offer placement to at least students who secured scores to attend St. Stanislaus, St. Joseph’s High and St. Rose’s High.Students with the requisite scores, whose parents may not be able to afford their travelling expenses, could especially benefit from the PC experience, speculated Canterbury.Asked about her thoughts on PC’s former status being claimed by a city secondary school Canterbury simply noted, “In terms of people’s perception about Queen’s College now being the premier school and all of that, for me PC is a unique institution.”She qualified her utterance by pointing out that the uniqueness of PC is rooted in the fact that the intent when it was established was to better groom young academics in a controlled environment.Currently the school offers residential placement to students from hinterland locations and also non-residential placement to students from Cummings Lodge to Mahaica on the East Coast of Demerara.The Principal noted that while it is not difficult to cater to both resident and non-resident students, she admitted that it does take away to some extent from what is supposed to happen.But according to Canterbury, PC could be on par with the other top performing schools of the country in terms of status “when we get what we have requested….when you give us students below 500 the perception in the minds of people is that PC is below those (top) schools because our cut off is below 500, and it puts us in a very bad position.”She is convinced that children with the 500 and above scores should be given a chance to accept or refuse placement at QC. “Give them that invitation letter and let them decide whether they want to take it (placement) up or not.We were prepared to even accept that, and we are hoping that somebody is going to listen to our cry,” said Canterbury who pointed out that although teachers of PC are at a disadvantage, they are still able to produce students with performances that are on par with those from the top secondary schools.
