Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Wa­ter­loo High School prin­ci­pal Usha D Cheer­an­jie says the in­sti­tu­tion has re­ceived a for­mal ex­pres­sion of ap­pre­ci­a­tion from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, recog­nis­ing the school for show­ing marked im­prove­ment in aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance.

She not­ed that such recog­ni­tion is rare and sig­nif­i­cant, as it demon­strates the school’s con­sis­tent ef­forts to add val­ue to its stu­dents’ ed­u­ca­tion­al jour­neys.

Cheer­an­jie made the com­ment dur­ing the school’s an­nu­al grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny at the Den­nis P Ramd­han Com­plex in Mc Bean, Cou­va, yes­ter­day. The oc­ca­sion marked a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone, as the school cel­e­brat­ed its 25th an­niver­sary.

Ac­cord­ing to Cheer­an­jie, this recog­ni­tion was based on sys­tem­at­ic track­ing of stu­dent per­for­mance from the Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA) ex­am­i­na­tions through to the Caribbean Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate (CSEC) ex­ams by the min­istry. This track­ing has shown that Wa­ter­loo stu­dents gen­er­al­ly out­per­form peers with sim­i­lar SEA re­sults who were placed at oth­er in­sti­tu­tions.

De­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress was Denice Ramd­han, di­rec­tor of the D&D Group of Com­pa­nies, who em­pha­sised the pow­er of grat­i­tude.

“Grat­i­tude, dear grad­u­ates, is more than just say­ing thank you. It’s an at­ti­tude. A mind­set. A way of see­ing the world not as some­thing owed to us, but as a gift,” she said.

Ramd­han en­cour­aged stu­dents to re­flect on those who sup­port­ed them through­out their aca­d­e­m­ic jour­ney—from teach­ers who be­lieved in them, to par­ents and guardians who made sac­ri­fices, to friends who of­fered sup­port dur­ing chal­leng­ing times.

“To­day is not just about grad­u­at­ing with a diplo­ma. It’s about grad­u­at­ing with per­spec­tive. A sense of ap­pre­ci­a­tion. A deep­er un­der­stand­ing of who helped you get here,” she added.

She urged grad­u­ates to car­ry that spir­it of grat­i­tude in­to their fu­tures, whether they were head­ing to uni­ver­si­ty, the work­force, or tak­ing a well-earned break.

“Grat­i­tude will help you stay hum­ble when you’re win­ning, stay hope­ful when strug­gling, build mean­ing­ful re­la­tion­ships, lead with em­pa­thy, and find joy in small, or­di­nary mo­ments—even while chas­ing big dreams,” Ramd­han said.

“Suc­cess, with­out grat­i­tude, be­comes empti­ness in dis­guise. But suc­cess with grat­i­tude? That be­comes ful­fil­ment.”