Late-night lessons and a mother’s determination to drive her home from work each evening have paid off for 16-year-old Sufia Mohamed, who has become the first in her family to achieve outstanding CSEC results, passing all 19 subjects she attempted.
The JC Chandisingh Secondary student, of Region Six, attained 12 Grade Ones, six Grade Twos and one Grade Three, a feat she credited to months of lessons that sometimes ran past 10pm, after her mother collected her straight from work in Black Bush.
For Mohamed, the achievement carries weight beyond the grades themselves.
“I wanted to make my parents proud, and my family. This is the first time this is happening in my family. Most of the people in my family did not complete CSEC, so I wanted to make them proud and show them that their help and support made me do this good,” she said.
Behind those results lay an unusually heavy course load. While pursuing the science stream, Mohamed added eight subjects outside her core programme, including the full suite of business subjects, Religious Education and Physical Education. She said the goal was to keep her future options open.
“I wanted to be knowledgeable about all these subjects and lengthen my working area so I could possibly go into the business area and science area,” she said. “It was very overwhelming because I was in science stream, so I picked up a lot of subjects outside of my stream, and I had to put in the work and time to study by myself for those subjects.”
That workload initially worried her parents, and Mohamed said their doubts eased only after they met with her teachers.
“My parents were not so fond of me doing so many subjects at first, but when they went to high school and talked to my teachers, they believed in me,” she said.
Her mother, Danwantie Ganga, said the family had long recognised Sufia’s academic potential, even through the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which preceded her daughter earning a place at President’s College.
Ganga admitted she too had reservations about the 19-subject course load, given how much of it demanded independent study, but conversations with Sufia’s teachers changed her mind.
“I know she can be someone, and I know she can top her school, so we need to be there,” Ganga said.
That belief translated into daily sacrifice. With her husband managing the family business, Ganga took primary responsibility for getting Sufia to lessons, often late into the night.
“Sometimes during CXC time the lesson is over 10pm, driving straight from Black Bush,” she said. “I put my mind, because I have to take her to the lesson, and we say I have to do this for her, and I did it for her.”
With CSEC now behind her, Mohamed is looking ahead to the University of Guyana, where she plans to continue her studies in the sciences. Her ambition is to become a radiologist, a career she said has drawn her since childhood.
