Top student Zabdiel Dewar leads boys’ renaissance at Old Harbour Primary

However, special mention has been reserved for the boys, with 12-year-old Zabdiel Dewar leading a renaissance. Dewar topped the school’s PEP performance ranking with a placement score of 382.5 or 95.6% average and will be a member of the newest cohort at the famed Wolmer’s Boys School in Kingston.

In fact, the top two performing students are boys with Mikhail Clarke narrowly missing out on the top spot after carding an average of 95.2% on the annual national standardized examination for final year students at the primary level.

In third is Kleona Chapman, the highest ranked girl, who recorded an average of 94.4% to secure her seat at Glenmuir High.

“Based on the performance that I have seen, the boys have outperformed the girls, which is really commendable because it is unusual for boys to be outperforming girls,” said Goode in an interview with Old Harbour News. “It speaks to the fact that the whole gender teaching, gender education programme is working and the fact that we have been having a positive impact where boys are concerned.”

That all three students acquired their full primary education at Old Harbour Primary made this year’s exam even more special, said Goode, and could herald a new era of improved academic excellence as an increased number of their students matriculated into the more traditional secondary institutions.

Goode added: “It must be noted as well that all top three performers at Old Harbour Primary School: that is Zabdiel Dewar, Mikhail Clarke and [Kleona] Chapman; all those three students would have started here from grade one. So they are true products of this institution of excellence and so we are proud of them and as a school we wish them well on their next chapter and we know that they will continue to shine as they move on to their high school.”

Gifted Child

Zabdiel is the last of three children for his 44-year-old mother Janet McCalla. Much of Zabdiel upbringing has been by his grandaunt however, as his mom works overseas primarily. That grandaunt is Joy Cuningham. She describes Zabdiel as a gifted child who demonstrated quite early that he was on a special path to success.

Describing her grandson as a parent’s dream, Cunningham said: “He talks very intelligent and you would never get him around like children, you would find him around adults having big conversation from ever since. And you don’t find him play with toys but anything like phones and laptops that’s where you will find him.”

Indeed, throughout this interview Zabdiel exudes a level of maturity and intelligence that belies his tender age, traits that his mom observed from he was very young.

“Zabdiel started going school from one year and five months old,” she said from her home in the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. “Zabdiel, he was talking and I don’t mean gibberish. I mean talking. At four years old he was reading properly and fluently.”

Despite his obvious intellectual gift, Zabdiel had to overcome one major challenge. Sitting an exam was his greatest fear, a major Achilles heel which he credited his teachers, grandaunt and other family members in helping him overcome.

“I did exceptionally inside of classwork, projects and I had a lot of help in projects because of my aunt,” he said. “It’s not that the tests were hard and I didn’t understand the questions. It’s because it was a test my body got very nervous and I got very nervous in test times. It’s not the very hard questions I would get wrong. It would be the very simple questions and that was my problem mainly with test.”

It is for this reason why the towering lad who stands close to six feet tall is jumping for joy weeks later after the results were made public.

“I feel exceptionally proud,” he said, while pointing to countless practice exam marathons undertaken at school and at home. “So when I found out I got that grade I was very happy because of my past history with test. I dedicated a lot of time and energy to prepare for the test and I was glad that all that time was not wasted.”

Why Wolmers

Among his father’s side of family Zabdiel said quite a number of them are Wolmerian, including his father. But the Heroes Circle-based institution which is among the oldest high schools in Jamaica wasn’t among his preferred choice until he did some fact finding. 

Impressed by what he discovered he said “I would like to follow their legacy”, though he wasn’t fond of Wolmer’s initially and had ambitions of going to rivals like Ardenne, JC or Glenmuir. In another few weeks from now he will officially be a Wolmerian, donning that traditional maroon and gold, something that he hopes to make a telling contribution to an already rich legacy.

So what he hopes to become in the future, I asked him.

“At the moment there are two things that my mind is set on. At the moment I’m set on becoming a pilot or a technical engineer such as programming or entrepreneurship inside of technology,” he said. 

At the graduation ceremony Zabdiel was one of the most decorated graduates, copping several individual awards in numerous subjects.

However, his greatest memory at primary school wasn’t his final year but hearing his name read out in grade three on prize giving day, as he was declared the top boy. 

“That was the happiest moment I had at Old Harbour Primary,” he said recalling a time when he recorded no less than 96 percent in all subjects taken.” His mom said his success is driven by a greater desire in seeking perfection as he would be hard on himself even if he falls just short of a perfect score.

“I will continue to try my best at all times,” Zabdiel said.

And despite the effects of a global health pandemic where many students fell short of delivering their best, Old Harbour Primary has thrived instead against the odds one would say.

“The students this year in comparison to previous years I would say the performances would have been improved despite the pandemic we are currently experiencing,” said the principal.

“We didn’t have any student falling at the beginners level, which is the lowest level where the rankings are concerned,” he added. “As you know the Ministry of Education through the student’s assessment unit would have ranked the PEP scores at the beginners level, at developing, at proficient or highly proficient. So I must boast about the quality of the students (grades) in terms of the fact that we don’t have anyone falling overall where beginners are concerned; and that must be attributed to the hard work and dedication of our teachers and indeed the parents who would have come on board with us to assist the students in that regard. And so that is a welcome change for us because it shows that the students would have moved leap and bounds from when they started here at Old Harbour Primary School. And so we are proud of them as a school. We’re extremely proud of their performance, we are extremely proud of our teachers and the input that they have sowed in our students.”