WILLIAM KNIBB Memorial High School in Trelawny continues to record excellence in agricultural sciences, with the school once again achieving a 100 per cent pass rate in the subject in the 2004 Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams.
"It has been four consecutive years now that the school has got 100 per cent passes in the area of agriculture and we are indeed proud of our students," said John Ferguson, senior agricultural science teacher.
He said recently that the impressive pass rate over the years had motivated more students to take the subject.
"I believe that William Knibb has entered the largest number of students to sit the agricultural science examination at the CXC level," he said, adding that 113 students sat the exam.
William Knibb's excellent record in agriculture could be credited to the hands-on-training the students receive by maintaining the school's bee farm and school garden.
The beekeeping project, Mr. Ferguson said, was a Ministry of Education project, which the school has turned into an income-generating venture.
"We have been reaping honey and processing it and we have also been marketing the product and we have been profiting from this venture," he said.
The honey is used to produce a number of items which are sold at the annual Hague and Denbigh agricultural shows. These include honey bread and jelly. They also sell bee venom and pollen. "We do not have the funds to produce these items on a large scale, so for right now we are just concentrating on the reaping of honey," Mr. Ferguson added.
He said that while the eight bee colonies survived the recent hurricane, there was a loss of flowering plants and the bees were now being manually fed.
In addition to the bee-keeping project, the students are maintaining a vegetable garden, which was planted in October to mark World Food Day.
With the strong practical and theoretical training they receive, Mr. Ferguson said most of the students continue their studies in the field of agriculture and have returned to the school to give motivational talks to encourage other students to enter the profession.
He feels proud that William Knibb was playing its part to ensure that there was a succession of trained professionals for the continued development of the country's agricultural sector.
