AKU-EB announces first composite examination results for SSC

Today Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB) released its first Composite Examination results for SSC, within six weeks of the conduct of the examinations in 22 locations across Pakistan . SSC candidates from AKU-EB's participating schools located all over the country, responded well to the challenge of demonstrating conceptual thinking skills, with 35 per cent of all candidates gaining Grades A-1 and A, 26 per cent gaining Grade B, with an overall passing rate of 78 per cent.

The top position holders are: Sakina Aijaz Hussain of Al Murtaza School, Karachi , achieved the overall top position with 90.71 per cent marks. The joint second position holders were Lubna Essa of ETN High School , Karachi and Mehwish Azher Javed of FFC Grammar School , Mirpur Mathelo, each with 89.06 per cent. The third position holder was Muhammad Sheraz Ahmed of Tameer-e-Millat School, Mianwalli who achieved 88.71 per cent.

As a national examination board following the Pakistani curriculum, AKU-EB offers an affordable examination system in a public-private partnership authorized by the Federal Government. AKU-EB emphasises testing of comprehension of concepts and application of knowledge with the goal of improving the quality of education in schools through examinations for the SSC and HSSC and preparing the students for the knowledge economy.

Examinations were conducted in both English and Urdu mediums and listening skills were assessed in both languages while practicals were conducted in five different subjects. AKU-EB used residential e-marking in Karachi and Lahore to check the examination papers. Electronic marking and tabulation of results by especially trained examiners makes tight quality assurance possible. The integrity and transparency of its examinations are major priorities of AKU-EB and this computer-assisted marking system protects the candidate against possible errors on the examiners' part, also ensuring stakeholder trust. This enables the AKU Examination Board to provide results that colleges can depend on for their admissions and schools can rely on for accurate assessments of their students' understanding and grasp of the subject.

The multiple marking system ensures that, a specific question is marked by only one single examiner for a large number of candidates, resulting in higher quality grading and thus benefiting the students. This process also generates meaningful feedback on candidate performance, question by question, school by school. AKU-EB provided essential support to schools by training teachers and holding workshops in applying methodologies design ed to enhance students' subject performance. Teachers and AKU-EB are able to plan for and see gradual improvement from year to year. These analyses of candidate performance will also provide an objective basis for establishing explicit and transparent standards of achievements for SSC and HSSC grades.

Commenting on the Examination Board's impact, Ms Nadia Feroz, Vice Principal of Shah Wilayat School in Karachi , said, “Our students have started taking more interest in their studies and this is the biggest change we have noticed after switching to AKU-EB. The use of the school library has also increased manifold since we adopted this new method.” Shaheen Public School 's Ms Hussain feels that students at her school are now “taking more interest in their studies and are learning by application.”

Supplementary examinations will be held from July 26, 2007 to allow candidates with one or two subject failures to retrieve their chances of college entry without losing a year of educational progress. As further support to that progress, affiliations of higher secondary schools and colleges for an AKU-EB HSSC are now open at www.aku.edu where full details of the SSC results are available.