By Vivian Tyson
SUN Associate Editor

While Turks and Caicos Islanders are busy looking down on Haitians, the Haitians' offspring are busy outdoing locals in the education arena, rattling up impressive grades, this according to Pastor for the Abundant Life Ministries International Church, Bishop C. Alexander Williams III.

Bishop Williams made the observation during his sermon on Sunday, June 29 during an interval period of handing out gifts to top students of the Whole Gospel Christian Academy - the school run by the ministry, which also recorded a one hundred percent pass mark in the recently-published GSAT Examination.

Bishop Williams' based his assessment on the number of Haitian children who have become top performers at both the Primary, as well as the Secondary level. Angena Agenor of Haitian parentage and a former student of the Clement Howell High School copped fifteen CXC subjects in 2007. This year's top achiever in the GSAT for Provo – Shelly Fleuidor – is of Haitian parentage.

Kanthal Capron of Ona Glinton, who was among the top ten in the GSAT, is also of Haitian heritage. The Valedictorians for Wesley Methodist – Botcheel Junior Louis and Whole Gospel Christian Academy – Kerbie Cadeus – are also of Haitian parentage. While delivering the valedictorian message, Kerbie declared that her parents woke her up about 4 a.m. every morning to study.

According to Bishop Williams, the Haitians were putting great emphasis on their children's education and ensuring that they perform handsomely in school, noting that for the most part, the same can't be said for a number of Turks and Caicos Islanders, who believe they don't have to work hard to achieve.

However, he noted that the era for such lackadaisical behaviour was coming to an end, since the Turks and Caicos Islands did not exist in bubble, but is part of the global village, and as a result, the population no longer competes among itself, but also with the rest of the world.

According to him, the days for rewarding mediocrity was over, noting that in the past, non-performing children, especially those whose names were synonymous with certain families in the TCI needed not worry about receiving failing grade, since quite often their grades were swapped with those who burned the midnight oil to make high academic achievements.

Bishop Williams encouraged Turks and Caicos Islanders not to be afraid of matching their performances with their expatriate counterparts; since it is when they equaled them in every department that they would know they are highly qualified to carry-out any task.

Referring to the one hundred percent passes from students of Whole Gospel Christian Academy , Bishop Williams said, such performance has gained the attention of even those who gave the institution a hard time, since the GSAT scores spoke for themselves.

He noted that by the next school year, the high school section of Whole Gospel Christian Academy will begin to match strides with the top high schools in the Turks and Caicos Islands , since the various learning mechanisms, including labs, will be put in place.