Singapore- The first batch of Singapore students who sat for the International Baccalaureate (IB) exam received their results on Monday.
Out of the over 300 students, nine of them got a perfect score of 45 – this is quite a feat because less than one percent of IB candidates worldwide are able to achieve such a score.
This academic success is even sweeter for one of the students who is battling a life-threatening illness.
Samuel Chan suffers from Hodgkin`s Lymphoma, a form of cancer. The former student at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) has to undergo treatments that lower his immunity.
Even though Samuel has had to skip classes, he was determined to enrol in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. He turned out to be among the nine who got full marks for all his subjects.
Samuel said: "This is really a blessing. That`s totally unexpected. When my immunity was so low and I couldn`t even attend classes, I went for video conferencing sessions from home. So I actually took my lessons over the Internet. I`m very, very grateful to my family and friends who have been very supportive."
ACS(I) is using the IB Programme as an alternative to `A` Levels. The IB is widely seen as a more holistic education.
The two-year programme includes a research essay of the student`s choice and non-academic components which encourage creative thinking.
Students have to finish 100 hours of "Theory of Knowledge", which encourages students to think, evaluate and question. They also have to complete 150 hours of "Creativity", "Action", and "Service" programmes.
On top of that, students also need to read six academic subjects. Each subject is allocated seven points, while the non-academic sections are allocated three points.
A total of 357 students from ACS(I)`s Integrated Programme sat for the exam in November last year and more than half of them scored above 40 points.
One of them is Li Haoyi, the youngest child of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. He scored 43 out of 45.
With a passing rate of 99.72 percent, this cohort performed well above the international passing rate of 80.82 percent.
ACS (I) said this essentially means that more than half of its students who sat for the IB exam can make it to top schools in the US and UK.
Dr Ong Teck Chin, principal of ACS(I), said: "We have proven that if we work together as a team, we can achieve much. I am very proud of every teacher who contributed to the success of our first batch of IB diploma students."
ACS(I) is currently the only school in Singapore with an integrated programme that offers the IB.
Source : www.channelnewsasia.com (8 Januari 2008)
