(DAWN) Cambridge Awards for Pakistani Schools

Islamabad, March 3: University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) will present brilliance awards to over 160 secondary school students from across Pakistan for their outstanding results in the Cambridge O Level, Cambridge IGCSE, Cambridge International A Level in June 2008 exams.

These students have won Top in the World awards Top in Pakistan awards, as well as awards for coming top In their region, across the full complement of Cambridge secondary school qualifications.

Students who received Top in the World awards, Top in Pakistan and Top in their region as well as best results across Cambridge O Level, International A and AS Level would be awarded individual named trophies to commemorate their impressive achievements.

Nine students from Schools in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad gained a Cambridge Top in the World award for their outstanding results in Cambridge international A Level. Thousands of students around the World sat for Cambridge International A Level and receiving a Top in the World for this qualification was major academic achievement.

Cambridge International A Level Top in the World award winners included Sara Jamil of Beaconhouse Defence Campus Lahore, in Law, Hamza Aftab, Aitchison College, Lahore, in Physics, Anum Shaukat from Keynesian Institute of Management & Sciences in Urdu and Reema Tariq Butt from Resource Academia in Chemistry.

From Karachi, Zainab Shaffi from the Avicenna School excelled in Sociology, Hira Omar from Karachi Grammar School in accounting, and Ahmed Tariq Soz of The Lyceum School in Mathematics.

From Islamabad, Zara Durrani from Beaconhouse School System will be awarded for excellent performance in Economics and Mahin Alamgir form Headstart School in Psychology.

The Cambridge Brilliance awards would be presented at individual ceremonies at their respective schools.

In his statement, CIE’s Regional Manager for the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, William Bickerdike said the high number of students in line for a Cambridge Brilliance Award was a testament to the quality of teaching at Cambridge schools across Pakistan, and the commitment of students to reach their full potential.

“Pakistan ranks as one of CIE’s highest achieving countries in terms of outstanding students” he said. “CIE is proud to partner with schools and centers to nurture the amazing ability of Pakistan’s young people adding, “Year after year, students from across the country amaze us with their dedication to learning and their ability to rank among the World’s highest achievers . Success at Cambridge International A Level provides the key to the very best universities around the World".

Director of Examinations, British Council Pakistan, John Gildea, said, “We have witnessed for ourselves the dedication Cambridge teachers in Pakistan show their pupils in preparing them for Cambridge’s world-class qualifications”.

TRAINING COURSE

As promised, we held our training course on Saturday 24th January 2009 in collaboration with Securities & Investment Institute UK which was a huge success. The Securities & Investment Institute is the largest and most widely respected professional body for those who work in the Securities and Investment industry in the UK and in a growing number of major financial centers round the world. Formed in 1992 by London Stock Exchange practitioners, they now have more than 40,000 members in 89 countries.

Registration was on first come first serve basis and in three days we had registered to our maximum capacity of 120 seats.

The Course was well attended by nominees from asset management industry, brokerage houses, banks and business college students amongst other individuals. The event was extensively covered by media & television. We shall reiterate our earlier stance of serving the capital markets and aiming to be at the top, the course series will continue in future also.