LAHORE: The New School (TNS) Beaconhouse International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme’s officials have said that the reasons behind achieving excellent results in IB Diploma Program and IB MYP are hard work of students, well-trained qualified faculty and most advanced curricula, which led IB students to get highest marks in Pakistan and 100 percent results. The students of TNS Beaconhouse got highest marks in International Baccalaureate’s Diploma Programme and 100 percent pass rate in Middle Years Programme (MYP) 2017. The maximum point grades for MYP programme is 56 and world average remained 35.6, however, TNS Beaconhouse’s average was 43, which was 7 points ahead of world average. TNS Beaconhouse IB Manager Peter Steven Giddens and IB Middle Year Programme (MYP) Coordinator Muhammad Rashid Khalid while talking to Daily Times said that although it was a new system of education in Pakistan, it is making students critical thinkers and good human beings, adding that the approach was understanding-based learning instead of the traditional educational system. IB Manager Peter Steven Giddons was of the view that besides the hard work of dedicated, qualified and well-trained faculty, the dedication and hard work of students as well as trust of parents in IB were the reasons behind the recent achievement. However, Peter believed that no matter what scores or what percentage students got in assessments, the real thing was that IB made students critical thinkers, who would become open-minded, honest and tolerant individuals in society. Peter further explained that these final scores of result were not actually the whole picture, as “we do not depend on the results or higher grades”. “The concepts matter, especially when a student gets admission to one of the best universities of the world, including Harvard University. Not every student is capable of getting higher grades, but if we focus on the students who are not able to get higher grades, their concept of study will be clear and they will be able to get admission to the best universities,” he expressed. Peter also revealed that IB students were very attractive for the internationally acclaimed varsities. IB Middle Year Programme (MYP) Coordinator Muhammad Rashid Khalid observed that average-wise, TNS was far better than the world’s average points in IB’s MYP. He added that one of their candidates got six 7s out of 8, which was highest a student could attain. Talking about the programme he explained that basically MYP was a challenging programme, which was based on the overall assessment of students. The assessment does not focus only on knowledge or learning of students, but their discipline and other abilities too, he said. Rashid further stated that it was very challenging to perform excellent in Pakistan, as there were only few schools that offer IB programme in the country. “We were not having any guidance from any other school but still our performance was on a par with the best schools in the world,” he added. He said that even one of the mentally challenged students was able to get 35 point, which was as per world’s average. To a query regarding change of traditional educational system towards IB system in Pakistan, Rashid observed that change always takes time and he could not give any timeframe for the people to get more inspired by the IB programme. “When our students will be hired by employers and they will observe very positive changes in these students, it will be the time when people will start thinking that IB programme’s students are brighter and more hardworking and open-minded than those being produced by the traditional education system,” he added. He said, “The IB programme is getting the trust of parents and students, and this is the achievement we are expecting in coming years.” Published in Daily Times, August 13th 2017.