Both Ameerah Beekoo and Aaron Subero will be awarded with the President’s Gold Medal for their performance in the 2020 Secondary Entrance Assessment examination.

The change in the decision from the Ministry of Education follows a major mix up in which Ameerah Beekhoo, who was initially named the top performer, was nearly stripped of her title after a review found that Subero outperformed her.

The Ministry explained that placement has customarily been based on preliminary SEA results, blaming a senior official for overstepping their authority by varying the placement list, based on reviewed results of some students.

“Quite apart from the merits of any proposed legal challenge by any of these students, it is important to recognise that both children will have regrettably and unjustifiably suffered as a result of the conflicting messages they have received. The subsequent treatment of this issue in the media will have no doubt exacerbated this hardship,” the Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

 “In a situation where two highly performing students have both excelled academically and have been both, through no fault of their own, been promised the highest accolade of the President’s Medal, and have both declared their willingness to share this accolade, as an exception to any earlier practice, this option has been agreed to, as it would conduce to the benefit of both students,” it added.

To substantively defend the proposed legal actions threatened by the respective parents could potentially delay any final resolution of this matter which would not be in the best interest of the two children involved.
Going forward there will be a review of this process.

Based on the circumstances previously described, the Ministry of Education has recommended, with agreement from the President, to jointly award the President’s Medal for Primary Education (Gold) and Primary Education (Silver) to the top performing students at the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) 2020:

-Ameerah Beekhoo           San Fernando TML (Gold)

-Aaron Subero                   Maria Regina Grade School (Gold)

-Anjanaa Dan                    Trinidad Renaissance School (Silver)

-Mercedes David              St. Gabriel’s Girls RC (Silver)