THE Waterloo Secondary School in Carapichaima has been in existence for only 12 years, but has already produced 12 national scholarship winners.

In 2008, the school, with an enrollment of 830 pupils, won five scholarships, with two scholarships each in 2010 and last year. This year, the school earned three scholarships.

Pupils Ashley Ramdin and Sabrah Ramgoolam both received additional scholarships in Science and Kelly-Ann Ramcharitar received an additional scholarship in Business Studies.

Principal Krishendath Basdeo said everyone was elated at the school's success.

He said: "For a new secondary school, we are extremely happy for our students because our students are not students who have scored really high in the SEA (Secondary Entrance Assessment). We are kind of like a middle school.

"We have to thank the efforts of our teachers in making this a reality in terms of getting the best out of our students for them to realise their true potential and so on especially as a young secondary school. I don't know of any young secondary school that was built 12 years ago that have enjoyed that kind of success."

He added, "The discipline contributes to our success, of course, and the engagement of co-curricular activities is something that we take great pride in that our students develop into all round holistic individuals."

Topping the list of scholarships-winning government schools were San Fernando Central Secondary School and Couva East Secondary School which both received five scholarships.

Apphia Knutt of the San Fernando Central Secondary School won an Open scholarship in Modern Studies and the others won additional scholarships: Narine Shanaz— Environmental Studies; Kavan Ramnath—Mathematics; and Navada Ramdass-Singh and Raphael Sookdeo both received scholarships in Science.

From Couva East Secondary School Sahil Ramlogan received an additional scholarship in Mathematics and Armorel Nawrang, Melissa Ramrose, Simon Lutchman and Varoun Hanooman all received scholarships in Science.

Topping the list of all schools was St Augustine Girls' High School with 36 scholarships, among them 17 open.