Jahier Jerome Johnson, a member of the Florence Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church, brought insatiable joy and oceans of tears to his mother, Sandaree Dacres, his grandmother, Norma Small, and his extended family, as well as his school and church communities. This joy comes in the wake of his outstanding performance on the 2025 Primary Exit Profile, a national secondary school placement test in Jamaica.
Johnson, who attends the Lawrence Tavern Primary School in West Rural, Saint Andrew, Jamaica was ranked among the highest achievers within the national cohort. Jahier’s academic profile for Grade 6 indicates that the young scholar has displayed distinguished proficiency in three of the four core subjects and consistent proficiency in the other; along with, a 98 percentile rating on the Ability test. Undoubtedly, Javier’s impeccable performance landed him a prestigious placement at Campion College. But the lad’s teachers were not surprised at his outstanding performance, since Johnson had already distinguished himself in academics and leadership, which had allowed him to cop many prizes at school award ceremonies and secure impressive titles of ‘Prefect’ and ‘Deputy Head Boy’.
But Jahier’s story is not one without challenges. In fact, one can easily juxtapose his life experience with that of ‘The three Hebrew boys and the fiery furnace. Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, this young man and his family were tempted to ‘bow’ to the pressure of attending extra classes on Sabbath. Certainly, these extra classes would have been necessary for repairing learning loss, cementing difficult academic concepts and further, sharpen test taking skills; but no good reason could suffice. With the song, ‘Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus’ as his mantra, and the words ‘the Sabbath of the Lord God is holy and in it thou shalt do no work (Exodus 20: 8) ringing in their ears, Jahier and his family stood firm, declaring that, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24: 15).
Jahier who hails from very humble beginnings is a testament that through hard work and commitment, one can succeed. Importantly, his story demonstrates that standing up for God comes with great reward! This little giant has reminded us that, though we are at times tempted to compromise our beliefs in God, we do not have to yield. We must remain true and faithful to our God.
Commendations must also be given to four other PEP students of the Florence Hill SDA Church who did extremely well and have been placed at traditional high schools. Ultimately, congratulations are extended to all PEP students from the Florence Hill District of Churches, other church districts, our Adventists schools, and the country at large.