Diamond Secondary School Still flying high

DIAMOND SECONDARY SCHOOL IS STILL FLYING HIGH in local and regional
academia although the altitude was lower than anticipated for 2020 the school’s Head Mistress
Ms. Lesmine Collins asserted.
Collins believes students struggled adjusting to the numerous challenges thrown up by the
COVID-19 pandemic and that affected their elevation in the Regional Caribbean Secondary
Education Certificates (CSEC) offered by the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC).
Nevertheless, the matriculation rate of 92.72 from her 132 students has pushed her beyond the
clouds with glee, she admitted.
From up there, Collins, who has been heading the East Bank Demerara institution for several
years said notwithstanding uncertainties from the pandemic and improvisations teachers and
students were forced to undertake, they never allowed conditions around their school to become
overcast. Students and teachers responded to the challenges by securing 100 percent pass rate in
several subjects.
“We had 100 percent passes in Agricultural Science both double and single awards, Biology,
Caribbean History, Family and Resource Management, Foods, Industrial Technology Building.
Arts, Physical Education and Information Technology (IT),” Collins told
www.aroundtheregions.com
The very popular educator said while they did not receive a 100 success in several other subjects,
she is nevertheless pleased with the overall high performance by students. She said that
considering the unprecedented challenges students faced because of the deadly COVID
pandemic, she will not lose sleep because only 6.47 percent got grade Four and 0.81 securing
grade Five. No one secured a grade six pass.

In those subjects the school didn’t secure 100 percent success, the pass rate was in the high 90s,
the proud HM said.
“Social Studies we got 96.18 percent; Principles of Business (POB) it was 99.19 percent and in
Principles of Accounts (POA) it was 97.87 percent. For the foreign languages, students who
wrote Portuguese had a success rate of 60 percent and in Spanish, 66.25 percent.
There was an 84.21 percent success rate in Physics; 97.83 percent pass in Integrated Science;
91.91 percent in Chemistry; 75.18 percent in Mathematics and 97.26 percent in Office
Administration (OA),
According to the HM her students also performed admirably in Electronic Document
Presentation and Management (EDPM) securing 98.6 percent passes, and in English Language a
97 percent pass rate.
In English Literature (English ‘B’) candidates has an 87.72 percentage pass; in Geography an
83.33 success rate; in Human and Social Biology (HSB) 93.33 percent success and Additional
Mathematics, 71.43 percent.
“Even though we did better than last year, the margin was not that big. What we have been
achieving at Diamond Secretary is not because of me, but rather it’s team work as everyone
plays an important role. The efforts of the teachers and the willingness of the students to do well
have seen Diamond Secondary doing exceptionally well in their academics and also in other
areas. I am fortunate to have teachers and support staff confident and committed to the tasks,”
Collins said.