233 WASSCE candidates graduate from St Augustine’s SSS

Written by Musa Ndow
  
At least 233 WASSCE candidates from St Augustine’s Senior Secondary School, last Saturday, June 9th, 2007, held their annual speech and prize giving at a colourful ceremony at the school’s ground in Banjul.

The event, which eyed at counselling the graduates for the future challenges they are about to face after completing their secondary education, brought parents, teaching staff, well wishers of the school and colleagues to grace the occasion.

Addressing the graduates, Mambury Njie, guest speaker for the ceremony said the period of youth is an odd one by nature, wrestling between childhood and adulthood, “a teenager is no longer content to play like a child but doesn’t yet have the knowledge and experience to be fully engaged in adult pursuits. He added that young people begin to experience many of the frustrations and yearnings of an adult’s, but may lack the maturity to deal with them. Mr. Njie maintained that youth is one of the most precious period of a person’s life, and yet one of the most difficult.

In his annual report, Martin Gomez, Principal of the school said in 2005/07 academic year, the students stood at 880, and the current year 2006/2007, the student’s population is at 787, this reflects a relatively significant decrease of about one hundred students. Outlining the academic performance in 2006, the school entered 193 candidates for the WASSCE, out of which 157 candidates passed in at least four subjects, 24 candidates passed in 3 subjects, 7 candidates passed in 2 subjects, 2 candidates passed in one subject and while 3 candidates passed in no subjects.  However, Gomez added that the result was encouraging as more students had credits in 5,6,7 subjects in the examination than the other years in its very recent history. And in 2007, the school entered 233 candidates for the WASSCE and expressed hope that all these candidates have taken advantage of the resourcefulness of their hardworking teachers who tirelessly tried to see to it that the school achieve better results this time around.

Mr. Gomez also dilated on the other achievements in the school, which includes St Augustine’s Alumni Association, internet connectivity and the school website, the computer lab update, primary restrictions and sustainability and the school link among others.
The ceremony was also witnessed by performance of the school’s drama team and demonstration of sports by the school’s sport team.