::: Star Campus :::

Interview

An evening with Alan Field

Shahnoor Wahid

I was pleasantly surprised to have Mr. Alan field in my room one evening last month. He had come all the way from England to attend The Daily Star Award Ceremony for the outstanding O-Level and A-Level students. But the programme had to be postponed because of continued political programmes in that month. Having plenty of time in hand Allan Field thought of making the best use of some of that by paying a visit to The Daily Star office in the evening.

A man of charming and amiable personality, it did not take long for Mr. Field to strike a conversation with people he met in the office. Below is a brief background and some of his comments about his organization Edexcel.

Alan Field is the new International development Manager at Edexcel, UK. As a former school inspector and advisor he has assisted hundreds of schools and colleges to improve their curriculum and the number of qualifications they offer, to raise achievement for students. For the last half years he has been the Edexcel representative at the National Assessment Agency with the task of modernising the UK Examinations System.

He was delighted that his first visit to Bangladesh was to celebrate student achievement at the Daily Star Award Ceremony. The postponement of the Award Ceremony is a disappointment for all but Alan would like to congratulate all of the students, their teachers and their families for their outstanding achievements.

''Edexcel is now the largest Examining Body in the world and Bangladesh has the largest number of candidates for Edexcel Academic qualifications outside the UK. Bangladesh students achieve some of the highest marks in the O and A Level examinations but to remain competitive across the world we have to continue to be innovative, improve quality and raise achievement.''

''We are proud of our relationship with Bangladesh and wish to continue to work with schools and the British Council to make sure that we can all remain at the leading edge of qualifications and examination technology in an increasingly challenging world.''

''This is possible because as part of the Pearson Group (joining leading companies like the Financial Times, Penguin and Longman) Edexcel now has the largest range of Academic and Vocational qualifications being delivered in over 100 countries taking our qualifications truly global. In many countries students now use both Edexcel Academic and Vocational courses to gain access to Higher Education in the UK, Australia, America, Canada and across the world.''

I would like to congratulate the British Council and the Edexcel regional office on recent innovations and initiatives like the workshops on improving quality with Head Teachers and Principals, and the introduction of BTEC qualifications currently being planned by some leading organisations.

Some of the Edexcel's recent innovations in the UK include:
E-pen: Our on-screen examination marking system allows examiners to receive students completed examination questions by secure on-line systems on their own PC'c. It improves the security and quality of exams marking and allows marking to be completed in a shorter time. Over 5,000,000 exam papers have been marked so far using this system.

Results Analysis Service: Exams marked using e-pen provides teachers and schools with a Results Analysis Service. It allows teachers to see all of the marks for their students on-line at the same time as results are issued, and to see the average marks for all questions and candidates taking the paper. Teachers can see what they can do to help raise achievement in the exam.

Edexcel On-line: The administration of Examinations for most of the 8000 Edexcel centres worldwide can be done on-line, giving centres access to their own files to assist with queries and make administration more streamlined.

Edexcel is now working towards using these innovative systems globally.
In addition, we are working towards ensuring that our qualifications are the most up to date. This includes the new IGCSE Qualifications which are already popular with leading schools, and we will be opening a new round the clock International Customer Service Centre in the New Year.

In conclusion Mr. Field said, Edexcel will continue to work with Bangladesh on both Academic and Vocational qualifications to ensure that, as a key partner, students receive the most up to date qualifications needed in today's world. Congratulations to the students achieving excellent results and we wish you every success in the future.