Sean Osner (left), deputy director of the USAID's Office of Sustainable Development; Shallette East (second left), vice-president of GoGSAT, an e-learning company; and Sasha Parke (third left), USAID's project management specialist for democracy and governance, compliment and encourage Julio Jacas (second right), top GSAT boy in Grants Pen; Junior McKenzie (centre), second male GSAT top achiever; Dyheemer Francis, second female GSAT top achiever and Kela Williams (right), top GSAT girl from Grants Pen. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Thirty-five students from the Grants Pen community in St Andrew were on Friday awarded for their sterling performances in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

The students were all part of the United States Agency for International Development/COMET, GoGSAT Programme, which was designed to assist students within the community who had challenges preparing for the GSAT.

GoGSAT is an e-learning company that assists students to prepare for GSAT.

The programme was hosted at Grants Pen Cyber Centre and monitored by the Community Policing Consultative Committee. The first batch of students began in January.

In the end, 35 students completed the programme and 30 were successful in their GSAT, giving them a programme success rate of 80 per cent. They were placed in prominent schools, including Immaculate Conception High, St George's College and Wolmer's High School.

"I am so happy that so many inner-city students are finding it easier to prepare for the annual Grade Six Achievement Test through the very generous effort of these partners ...," Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie told the gathering at Grants Pen Peace Park.

He noted that inner-city communities were becoming proactive in seeking to develop the training and educational facilities which will guarantee better opportunities for their children.

Performance of athletes significant

Meanwhile, McKenzie said the performance of Jamaica's athletes in Beijing, China, was significant.

"When Usain Bolt wins a gold medal, he doesn't win it for downtown or uptown and when he parades around the stadium with the flag draped over his shoulders, or stands on the podium to collect his medal and the Jamaican anthem starts playing, it makes us proud whether we are uptown or downtown ...," said McKenzie

He added: "Our athletes are proving to us that we are really one people, we are one nation, that we should have similar goals and aims and that, in order to achieve them, we must be united around our flag, our anthem, our national motto, our pledge and our nationality."