Karachi students take top 3 AKU-EB HSSC slots

KARACHI: Out of the hundreds of candidates who sat for the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) under the Aga Khan University Examination Board (AKU-EB), students who nabbed the top three positions all belong to Karachi, it was revealed on Tuesday.

The first position was awarded to Muhammad Aziz, who achieved 88.2 per cent, while Syed Akber Ali Shah came in second with 87.9 per cent and Mehak Rajani nabbed the third position with 87.5 per cent.

The position holders all belonged to the Aga Khan Higher Secondary School in Karachi.

Candidates can visit the HSSC website to look at the results online as well as acquire a detailed breakdown on their performance.

This is the first time the AKU-EB has examined both parts of the HSSC, in which 85.7 per cent of the students passed the exams, while the number of candidates who took the HSSC-II examinations this year has also doubled since last year.

“Last year, students were admitted to over 60 universities and institutes of higher education across the world, including the University of Regina in Canada and the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. [Many also got into] the NED University of Engineering and Technology, the Dow University of Health Sciences and the Lahore University of Management Sciences,” said AKU-EB director Dr Thomas Christie.

He added that, “Our HSSC candidates have the skills to compete and get into leading universities anywhere in the world.”

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and AKU-EB have been working together for the past two years, to refine the practices of tests and assessments at universities across the country.

“We are pleased to be working with the HEC to expand the perception of learning to something more than that which can be measured with just marks. Assessment is also about preparing a child with critical thinking skills,” said Christie.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2010.