Caption: Dr Michael Dowlath
By Alicia Chamely
THE 200 top-performing students and the 25 top schools in the 2025 Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam will be recognised at a ceremony by the Ministry of Education.
This was announced on Thursday by Minister of Education Dr Michael Dowlath at a post-cabinet press briefing held at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.
Dowlath said, “The Ministry of Education has resumed the recognition of students who placed in the top 200 of the SEA exam, and we have added the top 25 primary schools for recognition from the results of the 2025 SEA.”
He said 201 students would be recognised as two students ranked at #200.
The minister said 17,870 students wrote the 2025 exam, and the ministry had undertaken an analysis to “highlight both individual and institutional excellence.”
Dowlath broke down the statistics of the 2025 examination saying that of the top 200 performing students, 123 (61.2%) were girls and 72 (38.8%) were boys.
Thirty percent of the top students came from the Victoria educational district, 25% from St George East, 21% from Caroni, 1% from Tobago and 3% from the North Eastern district.
The denominational schools accounted for 68.2% of the top performers while 20.4% came from private schools and 11.4% from government schools.
Discussing the top schools, he said seven were in the St George East district, seven in the Port of Spain district, five in Victoria, four in Caroni and two in St Patrick.
Dowlath said the decision to recognise the students and schools was in line with “best international practice by ensuring recognition of excellence, accountability for low outcomes and fairness for schools of various sizes.”
He said it was his hope the act of recognising the top students and schools would “encourage improvement across the education system.”
The top five performing students and schools were previously recognised by the Ministry of Education in July.
The top five performing students in the 2025 SEA exam were Sandhya Boodram Maharaj (Macaulay Government); Xavier Telesford (private candidate); Nicholas Dolly (Chaguanas Government); Kailash Dialsingh (Exchange Presbyterian) and Ashlyn Ramkissoon (Jordan Hill Presbyterian).
The top five performing schools were:
- St Peter’s Private;
- Trinidad Renaissance Preparatory;
- San Fernando TML;
- Gandhi Memorial Vedic; and
- Lucia’s Private
Addressing concerns that boys were underperforming in the examination, Dowlath said this was something recognised by the ministry at both the SEA and CSEC levels.
He said the ministry was addressing the curriculum and the support services that could be made available to male students, especially in mathematics.
Referring to the statistics provided, Dowlath was asked if he believed there was a level of inequity within the exam given that only 11% of the top performers were from government schools.
He said this, too was being looked at, especially with how the content of curriculum was being delivered at government schools.
Dowlath said meetings with the Curriculum Division of the ministry had been ongoing to look at support systems that could be used in government schools to aid students. He said this included the use of Artificial Intelligence.
He said, while there had been no discussion of discontinuing the SEA exam, the ministry was looking into the reintroduction of the Continuous Assessment Component (CAC).
