The Specialist Learning Centre held its graduation and prize-giving ceremony on June 18 at the Daaga Auditorium at UWI, St Augustine.

Sixty standard five students received certificates, and students from preschool to standard four were also honoured with special awards.

Principal Lynette Lalla-Chote claimed when compared with other schools in the East-West Corridor, her school is the best.

“In 2023, of the 60 students who wrote Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA), 87 per cent of those were admitted to prestige schools.”

Lalla-Chote was disturbed by the Ministry of Education's no longer recognising excellence in the SEA examinations by publishing the names of the top 200 students since 2022.

“No reasonable explanation has been given except to say that ‘it has outlived its usefulness.'"

“We in the business of education are cognisant of the fact that recognition of high performance is one of the most motivating factors towards excellence.”

The school recognised 24 class achievers for the last academic year, from preschool to standard four. They were presented with books and other prizes. There were also awards for standard five students in maths, language arts, essay writing and Spanish.

Liam Praim was the most improved student and the principal’s prize went to Kaitlyn Lewis, the sister of three-time Olympic sailor Andrew Lewis.

Lewis, guest speaker at the event, told the 60 graduates to ask themselves, “Is it by chance or is it by choice?

“The chance that you are waking up on Earth is one in 400 billion. We are all miracles. The chance you have here on Earth is not a mistake.”

Lewis spoke about his early dreams.

“My dream of going to the Olympics started at your age – 12 or 13 years old.

“There is no age in which you can’t dream big.”

He also spoke of how heartbreaking it was not to qualify for the 2008 Olympic games, but said his journey had only then begun.

“This was just an experience in my life, getting me ready for life journeys.

“I planned stronger, smarter, faster, invested more, did everything I possibly can to achieve this wild dream and in 2012, I did it.”

While at 20 Lewis did not make it to the final, he said to himself, “I can make it to the finals and I can become an Olympic medallist too.”

Lewis explained in 2015, while he was seeing improvement in his performance, a freak accident occured. While it was a setback, he urged the students to “rebuild and go again and again.”

He made it into two Olympic Games after the accident, then became an Olympic-level sailing coach for the Canadian national team for a time.

“There’s going to be many times in your life when it doesn’t work out, and that's ok. It is a strengthening opportunity.”

Lalla-Chote told the graduates to observe the chaos around the world.

“Go out into the world and make a difference, the difference that God intended for you.

“Whatever path you choose, always remember to consider it a service to humanity.”

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