ESF, St Paul's score in International Baccalaureate exams
The English Schools Foundation has recorded eight top scorers in the International Baccalaureate Diploma - its second-best tally of high-fliers in the Geneva-based exams.
The English Schools Foundation has recorded eight top scorers in the International Baccalaureate Diploma - its second-best tally of high-fliers in the Geneva-based exams.
And St Paul's Co-educational College in Mid-Levels achieved an impressive feat, with 61 per cent of its 23-pupil IB class scoring 40 out of 45 marks.
The class is only the second batch to have taken the curriculum at St Paul's. Just 6 per cent worldwide scored within this range in the May exams last year, the International Baccalaureate Organisation said.
At the foundation, the eight pupils from five schools would account for 5.2 per cent of the 154 top scorers recorded globally last year, the organisation said.
Twelve from the ESF attained the perfect score two years ago.
"We are most proud of the IB students who have found the diploma tough but have stuck with it and at the end have come and achieved the full diploma," ESF student attainment manager David Kirby said yesterday.
ESF had 937 pupils sitting the exams this year, a 10 per cent rise from 850 in the previous year. IB bilingual diplomas would be awarded to 135 pupils, up 29 per cent from 105 the year before.
"The number of bilingual diplomas this year is the highest it has ever been," Kirby said.
At the Canadian International School, one pupil got full marks and two had 44 points. They are among 29 pupils at the school who scored 40 points or more.
But the true value of education goes beyond academic credentials, or so St Paul's IB graduates seem to suggest.
Zachariah Lee Kwok-tsat rejected an offer from Oxford University, choosing instead to study medicine at Chinese University or the University of Hong Kong "for personal reasons".
Many of the pupils said they refused to be defined by any single experience or to allow society to dictate their expectations.
"I am no elite in any way," Peter Wang, who will attend Yale University, said.
"My ultimate goal in life is to inspire other people, by what I discover through knowledge … This is my best way, to use my talents, to contribute to society."
