SSC exam results: students reap benefits of broad-based learning

The Aga Khan University Examination Board on Friday announced its annual Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Part I and II examination results.
The examination board is a federal board for intermediate and secondary education that offers qualifications in both English and Urdu, based on the national curriculum.
An AKU official said here on Friday that the efficiency and integrity of AKU-EB’s e-marking system has allowed the results of the exams, conducted across 33 cities of Pakistan, to be announced within six weeks.
Syed Wahaj Ahmed of Shahwilayat Public School with 90.27 per cent marks secured first position in this year’s examinations; Sadaf Batool Rizvi of Al-Murtaza School earned second position with 90.18 per cent marks.
Two students, Sheharyar Farooq of Sultan Mohammad Shah Aga Khan School and Zahra Hussaini of Habib Girls School secured joint third position with 90.09 per cent marks each.
The overall passing rate this year was 84.4 percent with 11.35 percent of the students earning an A-1 Grade while 26 percent secured an A Grade.
The Board is hopeful that future SSC students who get an opportunity to learn through its Middle School Assessment Framework (MSAF) in grades VI-VIII will attain even better results in their exams.
The MSAF integrates important literacy and numeracy skills needed for a student to be successful both in the classroom and the real world. These skills include problem-solving, critical thinking, independent learning, research, presentation and project management as well as social and ethical awareness.
`Secondary School Certificate is an important milestone in a student’s life. It is critical that this foundation is strong enough to hold the pressures of higher secondary and specialised studies’, said Karima Kara, Associate Director, AKU-EB.
Further highlighting the benefits of MSAF, she added, `Our SSC schemes and syllabuses are specifically designed to improve broad-based critical learning, and MSAF helps strengthen this foundation right when it is being laid in grades VI-VIII’. She encouraged all middle schools to adopt this framework in order to help their students as well as teachers with a smooth transition to secondary school studies.
`It is great to see students learning independently outside of the text books. They worked on variety of tasks and projects and enjoyed a different kind of learning experience’, stated Diana Randeria, Headmistress, BVS Parsi School, discussing the benefits of Project Portfolio tasks within the Middle School Assessment Framework.
AKU-EB’s annual SSC results are now available online with a detailed breakdown for candidates on how they performed as compared to their group peers at www.aku.edu/akueb.