RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

De­spite COVID-19 re­stric­tions and the pres­sures of at­tend­ing on­line class­es, the San Fer­nan­do TML Pri­ma­ry school has been named the Best Pri­ma­ry School 2021, af­ter its stu­dents ex­celled in the NGC San­fest com­pe­ti­tion cop­ping 16 awards.

At a prize-giv­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion cer­e­mo­ny held at the Cre­ative Arts Cen­ter in San Fer­nan­do last Sat­ur­day, the stu­dents re­ceived awards for ex­cel­lence in Vo­cals, In­stru­men­tal, Cre­ative Writ­ing, Pho­tog­ra­phy, Sto­ry­telling and Mono­logue.

Act­ing school prin­ci­pal Wahi­da Mo­hammed-Nar­ine said the fes­ti­val's theme ti­tled "The Show Must Go On" ap­pro­pri­ate­ly de­pict­ed the need for ed­u­ca­tors to con­tin­ue tap­ping on the skills and tal­ents of the chil­dren, dur­ing the un­prece­dent­ed pan­dem­ic.

"De­spite the Covid-19 re­stric­tions, our stu­dents have con­tin­ued to achieve in aca­d­e­mics, re­li­gion, co-cur­ric­u­lar, and ex­tracur­ric­u­lar ac­tiv­i­ties. We are for­ev­er grate­ful to all our stu­dents, par­ents, teach­ers, and oth­er stake­hold­ers for their ded­i­ca­tion in en­sur­ing the stu­dents con­tin­ue to suc­ceed not on­ly in San­fest but at all school en­deav­ours," Mo­hammed-Nar­ine said.

She added, "The hy­brid sys­tem im­pact­ed well in pro­vid­ing the ide­al plat­form for all stake­hold­ers to com­mu­ni­cate ef­fec­tive­ly. Our stu­dents con­tin­ue to make us proud. They dis­played bril­liance, re­silience, ef­fort and strength as they forged ahead dur­ing this pan­dem­ic."

She not­ed that the school will con­tin­ue with its vi­sion "to achieve ex­cel­lence in ed­u­ca­tion by work­ing with all stake­hold­ers to pro­vide a teach­ing-learn­ing en­vi­ron­ment that caters for the holis­tic de­vel­op­ment of the chil­dren and to equip the child with the tech­no­log­i­cal skills for the 21st cen­tu­ry."

Thank­ing the San Fer­nan­do Arts Coun­cil and The Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed (NGC) for cre­at­ing an av­enue for pro­mot­ing young tal­ents, Mo­hammed-Nar­ine said ini­tia­tives like these go a long way in mould­ing the con­fi­dence and abil­i­ties of chil­dren.

She con­grat­u­lat­ed the Coun­cil on its 52nd an­niver­sary as a "Cham­pi­on for Arts and Cul­ture."

" Your zeal to pro­mote Arts and Cul­ture will grow from strength to strength as you de­vel­op that in­nate abil­i­ty in the young minds to strive to­wards ex­cel­lence," she added.

The school al­so plans to have an achieve­ment award on Fri­day to ho­n­our the San­fest win­ners.

List­ed are the win­ners of the NGC San­fest 2021 in Mu­sic, Dra­ma, Vi­su­al Arts and Cre­ative Writ­ing. 

Na­tion­al Win­ners 

BEST PRI­MA­RY SCHOOL 2021 SAN FER­NAN­DO TML PRI­MA­RY SCHOOL

Best Re­li­gious Vo­cal Soloist Arisa Ra­jan  

Best Clas­si­cal Vo­cal Soloist Christyana Singh 

Best Mo­nolo­gist Va­sud­ha Ma­haraj 

Best-One Act Play Qadir Ali 

Best Sto­ry­teller Ana­suriya Seer­am Ma­haraj 

Ad­di­tion­al Win­ners:

Ka­ri­na Bhag­wan­dass Ex­cel­lence In­stru­men­tal So­lo

Christyana Singh Ex­cel­lence in Vo­cal So­lo Ur­banEx­cel­lence in Cre­ative Writ­ing Po­et­ry

Lasara Kalloo Ex­cel­lence in In­stru­men­tal So­lo

Arisa Ra­jan Ex­cel­lence in Vo­cal So­lo Ur­ban  

Anaya Ri­az Vo­cal So­lo -Re­li­gious

Va­sud­ha Ma­haraj Ex­cel­lence Cre­ative Writ­ing Short Sto­ry/Vo­cal So­lo Clas­si­cal

 Ana­suriya Seer­am Ma­haraj Ex­cel­lence in Cre­ative Writ­ing Short Sto­ry Mono­logue

Umar Mo­hammed Ex­cel­lence in Cre­ative Writ­ing Po­et­ry 

Vivek Ram­nanan Ex­cel­lence in Cre­ative Writ­ing Short Sto­ry

Anya Laquis Ex­cel­lence in Pho­tog­ra­phy

Raveena Go­sine Ex­cel­lence in Pho­tog­ra­phy