Ajhario Lugg overcomes the lure of YouTube to ace PEP

The result was a 98 percentage score in the Ability Task by the Davis Primary graduate who will join his big brother at Glenmuir High.

Speaking to Old Harbour News Ajhario’s parents said they “always believe he would do well”.

But he had to work for it.

His mother Sharlette Harris-Lugg said: “They basically have to do their homework themselves, they have to figure it out. We don’t sit and spoon feed them because we always tell them that in this world nobody gonna spoon feed you, nobody is gonna give you a scholarship, nobody is going to accept you into another environment, school, university… so you have to do your best so you can be always on top.”

However a bigger challenge had emerge for Ajhario that only he could ultimately resolve; that of balancing online school and leisure time surfing the internet, as virtual learning replaced face-to-face classrooms due to the coronavirus pandemic which is still ongoing.

It is a genuine problem for many children as well as parents adjusting to the new learning modality.

“I realize that if I was on YouTube all the time it would ruin my life,” Ajhario told Old Harbour News while recalling a thought-provoking conversation he had with his father that perhaps will change his life forever.

“He told me ‘you must decide what you want for the future’. So I wasn’t looking into the future or the days ahead of me,” he said. “But when I was sleeping that night I looked into myself and see how I could achieve something if I put out (eliminate) some things.”

“We had to fight with that… letting him know that his action is the ultimate determining factor in his success,” added Mrs Harris-Lugg.

“From there he pulled up his socks and got back into doing his school work. So it’s not like he was doing well constantly and he’s a child that doesn’t make mistakes. He made his own mistakes but then when he was given the ultimatum he’s the one who decided that he wants to do well.”

His dad Ricardo Lugg, a pharmacist, says he places “no limit” on his children in terms of expectations.

“Both of them are very brilliant student. The expectations that I have is there’s no limit. It’s just for them to apply themselves and stay focus,” said Mr Lugg.

Anticipating their son’s continued success Mrs Harris-Lugg said: “My expectation is that Ajhario does well to his standards and not the standards of others.”