EN ROUTE TO EXCELLENCE

On February 18, 2017, 566 students were awarded for their outstanding academic performances in the Edexcel International GCSE and A Level Examinations in 2016. The Edexcel High Achievers' Award 2016 was attended by more than 1500 people including students, teachers, parents and distinguished guests.

For their outstanding results in the academic year 2016, the ceremony honoured the awardees in four different categories in which 385 students were awarded for their outstanding achievement in International GCSE, 82 awardees in GCE A Levels, 47 awardees in PLSC (Primary and Lower Secondary Curriculum) and 51 students received the special awards for attaining World Highest and Country Highest marks. Pearson, the largest awarding body in the UK, jointly collaborated with the British Council and conducted the award ceremony for the fifth time in a row. 

The event, anchored by Farah Sharmeen, was designed into two parts. It commenced with the speeches from the guests, followed by a spectacular dance performed by a group of students from Bangladesh International Tutorial. The latter part was the award giving ceremony, in which the students received their award from the guests of the event. The programme began with a warm note of welcome and greeting from the Country Manager of Pearson Bangladesh, Saidur Rahman. In his welcome note, he highlighted that Bangladeshi students are performing better than many other countries in the International GCSE and GCE A Level examinations. 

Nurul Islam Nahid MP, Minister for Education, was present to grace the occasion as the chief guest. Recognising the outstanding achievement of these bright minds, he expressed his contentment on how English medium schools have opened up a world of opportunities for the students. The programme also had the presence of the British High Commissioner Alison Blake, Jim Scarth OBE, Acting Director of British Council, Derek Richardson, Director of Qualification Development, Assessment & Awarding at Pearson UK, Harish Doraiswamy, Vice President, Pearson South Asia, as special guests. The British High Commissioner congratulated all the awardees and mentioned that the success of the students is not limited to the country only but global. She highlighted that the UK Government continues to create opportunities for Bangladeshi students to get the best qualifications, for creating a better future and also expressed that this is possible with both the countries working collaboratively. The Acting Director of British Council, Jim Scarth also highlighted the recent overall improvement of Bangladesh and praised highly of the outstanding achievement of the awardees.

Harish Doraiswamy expressed immense privilege to be present among the high achievers. He commended to have the large number of students qualifying for this global recognition and said that it reflects the true testimony of quality coming from the Bangladeshi students. 

Among others, Deep Adhikari, Director Examinations of British Council, Abdullah Liton, Regional Development Manager and Shahin Reza, Regional Development Manager of Edexcel were also present.

The programme concluded with a group photo of the achievers and hundreds of selfies, wearing their medals and posing with victory, celebrating their success and achievement. Every year, there are more than 16000 students sit for these examinations in Bangladesh under Pearson Edexcel which are administered by British Council Bangladesh. Bangladesh is one of the key countries internationally from where a large number of students take part in the examinations for Edexcel qualifications every year and many of them go for higher studies at prestigious universities such as Harvard, Cambridge, MIT, LSE, etc. Many of these students are also studying at both public and private universities and are contributing to the growth of Bangladesh.