The top ten To­ba­go Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) stu­dents, their par­ents, teach­ers and prin­ci­pals were treat­ed to break­fast and awards by Chief Sec­re­tary and Sec­re­tary of Ed­u­ca­tion, In­no­va­tion and En­er­gy, Kelvin Charles on Tues­day at the Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort.

Charles ap­plaud­ed the teach­ers and prin­ci­pals and said he hoped the re­sults will mo­ti­vate them to main­tain the per­for­mance and gain no few­er than three stu­dents in the top 200 in 2020.

He al­so high­light­ed to the teach­ers and prin­ci­pals that the school de­vel­op­ment plans must be the ba­sis for their pro­grammes and the eval­u­a­tion of their schools’ per­for­mance.

In ad­di­tion to en­cour­ag­ing the stu­dents to choose their friends care­ful­ly and wise­ly as they em­bark on a new jour­ney, Charles urged them to pur­sue what­ev­er ca­reer path they choose, even if it is non-aca­d­e­m­ic.

Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly Kelvin Charles has honoured the top students of the SEA in Tobago.

“As we seek to de­vel­op To­ba­go, we need all kinds of skillsets not just the aca­d­e­m­ic pro­fes­sions. There is val­ue in what­ev­er work or ca­reer path you choose. Do it to the best of your abil­i­ty and do it with dis­tinc­tion. Go wher­ev­er your de­sires lead you but do good and do well.” He fur­ther cau­tioned the stu­dents not to be afraid of fail­ure, stat­ing, “Fail­ure is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to be­gin again and be­gin more in­tel­li­gent­ly,” he said.

The prin­ci­pals of the top ten stu­dents were pre­sent­ed with plaques of achieve­ment, while all ten stu­dents re­ceived cheques to­tal­ing $7,300.

All to­kens were pro­vid­ed by the Di­vi­sion of Ed­u­ca­tion, In­no­va­tion and En­er­gy.