The top Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) student at the Institute of Business Education (IBE) is Derick Murphy.
L – R – Murphy’s teacher – Jamain Hatton and Derick Murphy
Murphy hails from the mother of all villages, Victoria, located on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD). While growing up, the young man always had a passion for learning about his African ancestry and culture while also making his mother proud. In fact, one of Murphy’s School-Based Assessment (SBA) was entitled, “The Black Culture is Dying. Let’s Save It!”
In that piece, Derick detailed how much society badly wants him to lighten his black skin if he wants to gain recognition or acceptance. Derick talked about how black people with low self-esteem try to fit in by erasing their identity and adopting others’ cultures so that they can be accepted.
Derick ended his Oral Presentation during his English SBA evaluation by saying, “We need to teach our black children that we were kings and queens before slavery. We need to teach our young people that we are enough, more than enough, and even if they are the only ones believing we are enough.”
He also revealed that his love for his mother had been his driving force behind everything he does.
He says all he wants to do is pay her back for her time and investments. In this regard, his teacher – Jamain Hatton, said;
I personally witnessed her commitment to his education when she would visit school, sit and watch him as he completed his science lab reports, she would bring him lunch/ dinner, and pick him and friends up after night classes.
Derick said one day, after almost failing the National Grade Six Assessment Examination (NGSA), he came to the realisation that his mother was working too hard for him to be an average child, and since then, he had pushed himself even when he was physically tired.
As a result of his hard work and perseverance, he celebrates twelve (12) CSEC passes (Six Grade Ones, and Six Grade Twos).
Though he feels robbed and cheated, he said that he is grateful for those passes. Derick wants all boys and girls with humble beginnings from small communities like himself, to see that they too can achieve monumental goals if only they believe and work hard.
When he is not in school, the young man confessed that he listens to lots of motivating dancehall music like that from Alkaline, who tells him “everything in life takes time” and that he has to make an “impact” while here on Earth.
Derick wants to be an entrepreneur and a civil engineer and will be applying to the University of Guyana (UOG) soon to read for that degree. Derek dreams of one day visiting Ghana and see for himself what Africa is like, for he thinks undoubtedly it must be more than the poverty depicted in the media.
