Captain Gabriel: 12-year-old wants to become a pilot

GABRIEL Marharajh, 12, has dreams as big as the sky. And as he moves on up to secondary school, he hopes to make those dreams a reality.

When he grows up, he said he wants to be a pilot as he has always been interested in planes.

"I want to know how to fly a plane and I think it will be fun to do something like that."

A scary experience for some, he said plane rides are "very normal" to him and he enjoys them.

Maharajh attended the Aranguez TIA Primary School and recently passed for his first choice – St Anthony's College – after writing SEA.

He told Newsday Kids his favourite subject is maths and praised his former teacher Yaasir Mohammed for making complicated topics seem simple.

"I always understood what he was teaching, and he taught (maths) in a really easy way."

In addition to his teacher, he credited the website pennacool.com which has workbooks, practice tests and lesson plans for children.

"I found out about the website in standard four. They told us about it in school.

"It's simple to use and I got my way around it pretty easy."

Asked what learning style works best for him, he said a combination of audio and visual.

He said SEA was "kind of easy, kind of hard at times."

He said section one was easy, two was okay and three was "a little hard."

But he got it done.

He recalled being shocked when he got his results, which showed his hard work had paid off.

His new school, he said, has been all right so far. He said some teachers began teaching on the first day, while others were still giving the students some time to settle in.

In addition to loving maths, he said he also loves playing cricket and likes former West Indies captain and TKR (Trinbago Knight Riders) batsman and wicket-keeper Nicholas Pooran.

"I played cricket for the school (primary) as an all-rounder, and I like to play football sometimes, too."

He added that he wishes to start swimming and give basketball a try as well.

When he is not dreaming of soaring in the skies or playing sports, he said he is usually at home watching TV or playing Roblox, a video game.

He said his parents Sarah Jobent-Maharajh and Antonio Maharajh have been very supportive of him and his aspirations.

"They help and support me a lot."