2017 Primary Six National Exams - Takamaka pupils excel |18 May 2018
• Haille Denis the best
Haille Denis from Takamaka primary school is the best overall pupil for the 2017 national primary six examinations.
Out of a total of 600 points, Haille scored 520 points to take first position ahead of fellow pupils Christ Magnan with 517 points and Hope Nourrice with 511 points, both also from Takamaka primary school.
It was the Minister for Education and Human Resource Development, Jeanne Simeon, who presented Haille with her award and prizes.
All three best students are currently in S1 at the Anse Royale secondary school.
This was the third such event since the first presentation in 2016 for the 2015 best awardees.
In all there were two best achievers for English, eleven best achievers for French, two best achievers for Kreol, six best achievers for mathematics and one best achiever in science.
With her 97% mark in French, Haille Denis is among six pupils who scored A* and one pupil who scored two ‘A’s for the best performance award per subject. The other winners are Zoe Juppont from Cascade primary school -- 97% for French (A*), Eliel Meriza from Bel Eau primary school –94% for maths (A*), Alejandro Sanguignon from Takamaka primary school – 91% for English (A*), Rehannah Moses from Bel Ombre primary school – 90% for Kreol (A*) and Romelia Moustache from Anse Etoile primary school – 90% for Kreol (A*).
Christ Magnan from Takamaka primary school won ‘A’ for science with 89% and ‘A’ for Social Studies with 88%.
Haille Denis, who wants to be a pilot when she finishes school, said she took her lessons seriously since the first day she entered primary six upon the advice of her mother.
“She told me to study from the onset as things won’t be the same in P6 and this was what I did,” she said, noting that she doesn’t particularly like French and is wondering how she got 97% for the subject.
Her colleague, Christ Magnan, said he studied until very late at night and he is very happy with his results.
“I am continuing with the same study pattern,” said Christ, who wants to be an engineer when he finishes school.
The pupils were rewarded during a ceremony held yesterday afternoon at the Seychelles Institute for Teacher Education (SITE). Present were the special advisor to the minister, Merida Delcy; the principal secretary for Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education, Odile Decomarmond; the principal secretary for Tertiary Education and Human Resource Development, Dr Linda Barallon; senior management team; teachers; pupils and parents.
In his speech for the occasion, the director general for Early and Primary Education, Cyril Pillay, said that as schools face many challenges to get quality secondary education, we need to improve primary education.
He added that this has started since 2017 with the use of the English language to teach mathematics as from primary one and changes are still ongoing in the ministry with certain new initiatives to revamp the educational system thus improving the quality of learning and teaching.
The Takamaka primary school head Teacher, Magda Rose, said her school’s success is the result of team work and follow-ups, focusing more on the implementation of the curriculum along with extra classes after school.
According to Kevil Telemaque, director of Assessment and Classification in the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, some 1350 primary six pupils from Mahé, Praslin and La Digue sat for the national exams and 21 students came out as best performers.
He said the results this year are uneven as the students are still getting better results in languages compared to maths and the science subjects.
He said that the schools and the ministry will have to sit down to analise the weak points so as to have better results from each and every school as there are schools with no pupils as best performers.
