Berkeley graduates bore caps and gowns yesterday to celebrate the school’s near-perfect graduation rate.

Principal of the Berkeley Institute, Michelle Simmons, was proud to announce that 87 per cent of senior students, 39 girls and 27 boys, had fulfilled the requirements to graduate — a steady improvement from last year. Yesterday’s graduation is the first in the newly built school and was held in the spacious new auditorium.

Mrs. Simmons said: “I am pleased that 87 per cent of the (Senior) 4 year group has graduated and we have about 11 students who will be enrolling in summer school with one or two credits left to fulfil.”

By the end of August, the graduation rate should be up in the high nineties — an estimated 98 per cent said Mrs Simmons.

The graduates received certificates and awards for their hard work and perseverance and were given words of advice for their journey onwards.

A Berkeleite from the Class of 1997, Waynette Brangman, told the teenagers that the road ahead would be tough. She said: “The race is not for the swift, but for those who endure to the end.”

She continued: “If you fail it is on you. If you pass it is on you. If you decide to drop out it’s on you. This is serious - play time is over. Yes this is a fun day but now embarks a very serious challenge.”

Valedictorian and Deputy Head Girl, Terrisa Stewart, admitted she was proud the same people beside her when she started Berkeley were graduating and said: “Gentlemen you are the men of the years to come and ladies we are the women of the future.”

Head Boy Uthmani Talbot was the last of six siblings to graduate from the Berkeley Institute and did so with a long list of honours.

Mr. Talbot was the recipient of scholarships from Ernst & Young and Appleby and also received prizes for Spanish, accounts, physics and the Mansfield Brock Science Cup.

He said: “It feels great to finally be out of school. And just a word for the young people - keep their head straight.

“I think it’s great that Berkeley received their graduation rate and I am glad to see more males graduate and not fall to the stereotype.”

While some of the graduates will go straight into the workforce, four of the students will be heading to South America as Rotary Exchange Scholars, 15 will pursue their studies overseas and 23 will be starting at Bermuda College.

Cricket star, Malachi Jones aspires to go to college, but admitted he was not expecting to graduate along with his peers.

He said “when I returned I figured I could do it and made a plan as to how to approach it and I came out successful”.

Several political leaders attended the three-hour ceremony at the Heritage Worship Centre in Hamilton, including Opposition Leader, Michael Dunkley, Minister of the Environment, Neletha Butterfield, Minister of Education, Randy Horton and Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons and friends and family joined in with the celebration.