Twelve year old Jhonoi Tomlin of St Patrick’s Primary, Olympic Gardens must be congratulated for his outstanding performance in the GSAT examination 2013. His average score of 98.2 over five papers not only ranks him in the top 50 students nationally and hence the award of a Government Scholarship, but also the added distinction of being the highest achiever of his 300 KC cohorts who will be entering the hallowed portals of the Melbourne campus in Michaelmas 2013.
According to his father Dwight Tomlin, Jhonoi was prepared for academic excellence even before he was born. His pregnant mother Camille Clarke of Ensom City read profusely and often rested the book on the pregnant belly. He was also destined for KC as early as the year of his birth in 2001 which coincided with the graduation his brother, Jiovani, from the North street alma mater.
From the moment he left St Joseph’s “Labour of love” paediatric ward, Jhonoi was showered with toys and books of an educational nature. Largely home taught, by the time he started his early childhood education at Brown’s Little People Prep, the child prodigy had a head start over the others and immediately topped the class. Unable to afford the tuition fee and with the financial viability of the Spanish Town based prep school in doubt, his father sought and was granted a space for him at his St Patrick’s Primary alma-mater. With the exception of the first year he continued to cop all awards of excellence. The principal confirmed that he never took extra lessons during his tenure at St Patricks which in her view is standing testimony of his brilliance and deep rooted interest of his father in his education.
In addition to extensive reading, he lists chess amongst his hobbies. He taught himself chess by surfing the internet as well as voracious reading of Ian Wilkinson’s books on the subject matter. He hopes to meet to meet the “dribbleino” who is also president of the Chess Federation of Jamaica. He also looks forward to visiting his Magnificent Chess training institute.
He currently resides with his father, step mother and two brothers at the family’s lower middle income residence at St Jago South, Spanish Town and St Catherine.
His ambition is to be a civil engineer.
Jhonoi is very much aware that come September he will be entering a very united family setting of academic excellence and that his cohorts averaged mid 80’s in the GSAT 2013. No doubt he will be looking over the average of the top three thus:
Name Math Science Social studies Language arts Communication studies Avg.
J. Tomlin 97 97 100 97 12 98.2
K.Chin 99 98 99 94 11 96.4
R. Gordon 97 96 96 96 10 94