TWO Westville high schools have once again reaffirmed their position as top academic schools in the country.
Westville Boys’ High School’s class of 2014 achieved 527 subject distinctions and an 86 per cent Bachelor pass rate. The school also had the distinction of having two pupils, Sanav Singh and Nikhil Ramlal, being placed sixth and eighth respectively in the KZN Top 10 achiever list. No other boys’ school in the province matched that accomplishment.
Westville Girls’ High School also had two pupils in the KZN Top 10 achievers list – Krysten Smithers and Kalpana Maharaj were placed seventh and 10th respectively. The school’s Class of 2014 achieved 752 subject distinctions and a 98 per cent Bachelors pass.
Trevor Hall, headmaster at WBHS, said it should be noted that this was achieved in the context of the first year of a new curriculum (CAPS), and in a year of a general national decline in marks and pass rates in several of the gateway subjects.
“Akshay Rampersad undertook nine subjects and had the unique achievement of attaining a distinction in every one. It is unfortunate that the KZN results did not take into account the results of the accelerated programme (AP) mathematics examination, which is set by the IEB, as six Westville boys, including Akshay, achieved distinctions in that demanding course,” said Hall.
Akshay Rampersad achieved nine distinctions for English (86 per cent), Afrikaans (86 per cent), maths (98 per cent), life orientation (94 per cent), accounting (97 per cent), engineering, graphics and design (98 per cent), information technology (94 per cent), physical science (92 per cent) and AP maths (89 per cent). The boys who each achieved eight distinctions were Cameron Cominato, Warren Cox, Mayan Kassim, Nikhil Ramlal and Sanav Singh.
Sanav’s results were English (93 per cent), Afrikaans (94 per cent), maths (96 per cent), life orientation (93 per cent), accounting (99 per cent), engineering, graphics and design (94 per cent), physical science (95 per cent) and AP maths (83 per cent).
Nikhil received distinctions for English (91 per cent), Afrikaans (96 per cent), maths (99 per cent), life orientation (92 per cent), accounting (96 per cent), history (97 per cent), life sciences (93 per cent), physical science (91 per cent) and AP Maths (79 per cent).
Westville Girls’ High School’s top three matriculants were Krysten Smithers, Kalpana Maharaj and Caitlyn Sims. Krysten’s marks were English (91 per cent), Afrikaans (97 per cent), maths (97 per cent), life orientation (96 per cent), dramatic arts (100 per cent), life sciences (89 per cent) and physical science (96 per cent).
Kalpana’s achieved distinctions in English (91 per cent), Afrikaans (97 per cent), maths (94 per cent), life orientation (92 per cent), accounting (94 per cent), geography (96 per cent) and physical science (96 per cent).
Caitlyn scored high marks in English (88 per cent), Afrikaans (93 per cent), maths (94 per cent), life orientation (92 per cent), dramatic arts (98 per cent), life sciences (86 per cent) and physical science (99 per cent).
The girls were unfortunately not available for the photoshoot.