JUDGING the overall academic accomplishments of its students is probably the best measure of success of any school. Going by this yardstick, the German Swiss International School (GSIS) has good reason to be satisfied with its performance.
Evaluating some of the academic milestones over the last few years, we find that in the German stream, all students of Kl. 13 have successfully passed their 'Reifepruefung' - a total of about 130 candidates since 1981. The 'Berufsschule' - or the vocational training scheme - has been equally successful with about 50 diplomas being awarded in the course of the last eight years.
Looking at some of the results in the public examinations of the international stream, one finds the same success story. In the summer of this year, for instance, 372 candidates took the GCSE examination. And the pass rates within grades A to C was a high 97 per cent, with 48 per cent of the passes scoring between grades A or A+.
'The results in the international stream this summer compare very favourably with the national average in Britain, where this year's record pass rate was 53 per cent, with 16 per cent in the A or A+ range,' said Mr Eberhard Schierschke, headmaster of GSIS.
'The results at the advanced level were our best for some years. And using the school rating list published by the Financial Times, the GSIS finds itself among the top 100 independent schools of Britain,' he said.
In the advanced level, 39 examinations were taken, out of which a 95 per cent pass rate was achieved. Again, this compares favourably with the British pass rate of 82.9 per cent. Even more impressive than the pass rate was that at the GSIS 54 per cent of the passes were between the grades of A or B, while 32 per cent in this year's pass rate in Britain, again a record figure, were at grades A or B.
