Moscow: Pakistani students have again proved their mettle at the international level with their superlative performance at the 45th International Chemistry Olympiad 2013 (IChO), held in Moscow, Russia.
The team of four students were sponsored by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). The team secured three bronze medals, with which Pakistan recorded its best performance since 2005 when it first took part in the competition.
Pakistani students were competing with brilliant students from other countries, and in spite of stiff competition, they did well. A total of 291 of the brightest students from 77 countries participated in the olympiad. Huda Zahid of Beaconhouse School Faisalabad, Muhammad Zain Raza of City School Islamabad and Muhammad Khan of Lahore Grammar School, Lahore secured bronze medals.
Commenting on this achievement, HEC Chairperson Dr Javaid R Laghari has congratulated all the medallists and their proud parents for winning laurels for Pakistan. He remarked that, finally Pakistan’s education sector is beginning to shine globally, first at the World Economic Forum at Davos, then with QS World University Rankings, and now the Science Olympiad. He assured that HEC would continue to support such initiatives in future as well.
Conducted since 1968, the IChO boosts the level of chemistry education in the participating countries. It helps develop friendly relations between young people from different countries.
Under a joint working mechanism between HEC and Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS) Islamabad, selection process of Pakistan Olympiads teams starts in September each year. This is followed by a screening test, held in the major cities all over the country. Every year more than 6,000 students who must have scored a minimum of 70 % or more marks in their SSC or O-level exams take part in the contest. Fifty of the top scorers in each subject of NSTC are selected on the basis of their performance in the screening test. Further grooming and screening through a series of training camps at the home institutes of each subject leads to the selection of a 4-6 member student team for the Olympiads.
The annual International Olympiads provide pre-university science students from around the world an opportunity to compete in solving challenging theoretical and experimental science problems. Most of the Pakistani students get scholarships for higher studies in leading universities of the world such as Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Caltech and Oxford. online