Sierra Leone Telegraph: 21 January 2022:
Melvina Malaika Nicol -Wilson – a dual Sierra Leonean and Namibian citizen and student from the top-rated St George’s Diocesan school in Windhoek, Namibia, Southern Africa, has achieved a record-breaking set of results in the Cambridge IGCSE International Assessment Education examinations conducted in November 2021.
Results which came out a few days ago, show that Melvina secured average 85.1 % in the international examinations with 5 Grade A in the following subjects:
Mathematics – A
Physics – A
Chemistry – A
Biology -A
English -A
German – A
Melvina is a bilingual student and the youngest in her class.
Reacting to the news of the results, Melvina said, “I am very happy and excited. It feels great to have achieved the highest grades I could have hoped for! I am looking forward to pursue medical studies and securing admission in a top rated university in Germany or the United Kingdom and across the world.
“I want to become a Medical Doctor and help in improving the health sector in Sierra Leone, Namibia and Africa at large,” she stated.
A news release from the St George’s Diocesan School listed Melvina Nicol -Wilson among the top preforming students. The news release reads:
“We want to congratulate the following Cambridge IGCSE (Grade 11) students who received A averages for the Cambridge Assessment International Education examinations at the end of 2021!”
Melvina has shown a real determination to achieve the very best results amidst exceedingly challenging times in the world.
Family and friends are delighted that her hard work, commitment, and resilience have paid off.
The high level of grades at all As, shows her brilliant standards of work and the exceptional progress made by her despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Melvina Malaika was born in the United Kingdom and she is the daughter of prominent Sierra Leonean Lawyer Melron C. Nicol -Wilson, Managing Partner of Nicol -Wilson & Co (Malaika Chambers).
Melvina is presently living in Namibia with her grandparents – Ronald and Melvina Nicol -Wilson, both retired academics in the sciences and languages.
Congratulations to this young child prodigy Melvina Nicol – Wilson . Its children like this that gives us hope that all is not lost in our country. For only through education that we will able to Marshall the efforts of every citizen in our country, in our long march to economic, scientific, technological development, artistic expression and societial emancipation, from the tyranny of self-doubt, and self destruction as our country has witnessed in the last few decades. We need more boys and girls to be educated so they can librate themselves from ignorance and want, and determine their own future and become active participants in helping shape the future development of our country.
Congratulations to our young coming doctor and we are so proud to have you as a Sierra leonean and Africa as a whole, keep it up the creator of the heaven and Earth will see you through your ambitions.
What an impressive performance! I wish our very young and gifted compatriot every success in her next adventures.
Let me first of all congratulate the young lady for her hard work and dedication in obtaining an excellent set of results in not what cynics would call mickey-mouse subjects but hard-core academic subjects including German. No surprise here a school pupil in the former Gernan colony of Namibia opted to do German – one of those difficult languagesto muster with ites wrird grammar..
That having been said, i can’t fathom why this achievement should be a news story. As the article alluded to, the progenitors of the “brainbox” are renowned lawyers and academicians. If you look at it in the perspective of both nature and nurture, it is high time we start considering the contextual nature of educational outcomes. The article would have been a story for me if it had highlighted that the young lady is the daughter of a tailor and a petty trader from a school in the poorest part of Namibia. Making a quick reference to the motherland, my question will be: will a student from, let us say from the Bo School, with 8 ones in his/her WASCE results, be seen as more academically able as a student from a downtown Freetown school, with 8 twos. Sorry i don’t want to call a name here. What effect do schools in posh neighbourhoods that tend to attract the best teachers have? Is helicopter parenting through self-tutoring or private tutoring any factor here?
The arguments about the contextual nature of educational outcomes is raging fiercely here in the UK. Oxbridge, two of the leading universities in the world are in the spotlight about the disproportionate intake of students admitted from private schools over the years compared to state schools That intense scrutinity saw this year a state school in East London having more students accepted at Oxbridge than that exemplar of posh private schools (public schools as they are called in the UK) – Eton College. It should be mentioned that Eton College has produced more British prime ministers than any other school in the UK. Admission Offices in most UK universities are now just not looking at the raw A Level results of their applicants but are increasingly interested in their socio-economic backgrounds and their directions of travel since they landed on planet earth.Nowadays, funding arrangements for schools in England has been restructured in a bid to narrow the educational gap between schools in well-to-do and very poor areas. The so-called postcode lottery is a real challenge for those passionate about levelling-up or equalisers in educational outcomes.
In as much as i don’t want to belittle the achievement of the young lady, i can’t help but to temper any admiration i have for her academic prowess with a dose of realism.
Mr Massally said: ….”I can’t fathom why this achievement should be a news story. As the article alluded to, the progenitors of the “brainbox” are renowned lawyers and academicians. If you look at it in the perspective of both nature and nurture, it is high time we start considering the contextual nature of educational outcomes. The article would have been a story for me if it had highlighted that the young lady is the daughter of a tailor and a petty trader from a school in the poorest part of Namibia.”
Mr Massally, here at the Sierra Leone Telegraph, we take the view that every child matters. We do not discriminate based on any social construct. We treat every story regarding children equally, as long as in our view the story is of public interest or interesting to the public. Thank you.
Accepted