Four years after the ElShaddai education arm has launched the IGCSE syllabus in 2017, the pioneer batch of EXCEL students took their IGCSE exams in October 2020. We achieved 100% passes. All the students did very well and Javaria Waseem scored straight As. Congratulation to both students and teachers for the good results and all glory to God for the success and excellent performance of the students.
The results are shown in the table below:
Javaria Waseem all As- 2A* and 3 ABushra Nazim 4 A* and 1B
Ahmad Fatiq 2A*, 2 A and 1 B
Memoona Sehrish 3A*, 1 B and 1C
James Wobil 3A ,1 B, and 1C
Khup Khan Thang 1A*, 2A, 1B, and 1C
Hifsa Waseem 2A*, 2B, and 1C
Sarah Zahid 1A, 3B and 1D
Overall, we achieve an outstanding result of 35 % A*, 27.5% A, making a total of 62.5% As. The best subjects performed were ICT and Accounts where achieved 7 out of 8 candidates scored A* and A and one B. The other subjects were very done too. We thank God for the dedicated teachers who overcame the difficulties of online teaching and were committed to preparing the students for the examination till the very last day.
We thank God for the provision of an apartment in Setia Alam for our students to stay during the sudden MCO lockdown in Klang which made it difficult for the students to travel to the examination venue in Shah Alam. It was such a blessing as the students need not worry about roadblocks and checkpoints every time they travelled to the examination venue to take their papers.
Seven of the graduated IGCSE students were offered the job as refugee teachers in our different learning centres, and one joined ElShaddai as an IT assistant.
Graduation/Award day 2021
We celebrated the success of the students who did well for their IGCSE examination in 2020 as well as the year-end examination for the other levels on 19 March 2021. We are very thankful to the Senior Pastor of St Barnabas Church, Klang who kindly allowed us to hold the event in the church sanctuary.
It was a very touching and meaningful time for the students, their parents, as well as the teachers. The prizewinners overcame many obstacles and difficulties to persevere in their studies to achieve success. Congratulations to all prize winners.
TESTIMONY
Hi, I am Javeria Waseem, from Pakistan, an IGCSE graduate from ElShaddai EXCEL Learning Centre When I came to Malaysia and got my admission into ElShaddai Refugee Learning Centre, my thought was ‘freedom’. Freedom of doing anything I wanted. And that was what I did. I did anything I wanted.
I became quite popular in the school, but was only known for bad deeds such as breaking every other school rule, not putting effort in my studies, and getting into fights with other students. As time passed and I got the opportunity to communicate with my teachers and spend more time with them to understand them, I realized that they would tell me when I
am wrong and scold me a little, not to belittle me but to make me a better person.
I started observing my teachers’ behaviour and trying to apply that in my life. The efforts they would put into our lessons, the way they handled different situations that occurred during the lessons not only taught us things related to the academics, but they taught us moral values and life lessons. The teachers did not just give us counsel but are also role models for us.
At the end of the day, it is the moral values that have helped me with my academics. I started trying to pay more attention during the lessons and practise self-control and patience to some extent. Not just in the class, but also in my daily life outside school. It was a real achievement and breakthrough for me because I have always thought that rules were meant to be broken, and I cannot live or behave otherwise.
By being part of this school El Shaddai, with the unconditional help of my teachers and my parents, not only I achieved good grades, but I also developed good character traits and changed my outlook and thinking.
I am really thankful to ERLC for not only helped by providing me with a scholarship, but also sponsoring all eight of us to take the IGCSE exams. I am extremely grateful to all my teachers who have made it possible for me to sit for the exams and pass with distinctions in all the five subjects!
The greatest challenge I faced before the IGCSE was coping with the online lessons. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all our classes were switched from physical to online ones and it was really difficult to concentrate sometimes.
Now that I am done with my IGCSE O’ levels, I plan to further my studies at the Advanced levels. I would like to encourage the present students who are diligent in their studies and confident in their abilities to go ahead to sit for the IGCSE rather than to wait till later. Lastly, I would like to thank God for making it possible for me and my friends to sit for the IGCSE and pass with good grades despite the adversity that is happening all around the world.
Hi, I am Bushra from Pakistan. I have recently completed my IGCSE, and I am very excited about my results. I got 4 As* and this is all because of the hard work and dedication of my teachers in El Shaddai primary and secondary schools that I am able to achieve such good grades. At El-Shaddai, the teachers are patient and ever willing to sit down with me after school to answer my queries. It is not easy to find teachers like them. As students, we have many teachers and educators, but a special few or even several, will leave a lasting impression.
A big thank you to all teachers and educators who have touched my life. Mere words can never express my deep gratitude to each one of you for truly caring and being there for me, teaching me lessons that I will carry throughout my life’s journey and for giving me fond memories that I will treasure forever.
Before coming to El Shaddai Refugee Learning Centre I was a shy person. After several years of schooling here, it has given me much confidence to speak in front of people. I have even won a prize in public speaking! This centre provided me with good quality education. Much credit goes to the teachers and administrators too. They motivated us to sit for the IGCSE exams.
During the national lockdown due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the teachers were worried about us, the IGCSE candidates. Most of the time we had online lessons. The biggest challenge that we faced during our exams was that we had to move to Setia Alam to ease transport arrangements and to avoid traffic congestion. For some of us, it was very challenging to stay in an unfamiliar place away from home.
To conclude, I would like to encourage, first of all, my juniors to work very hard because IGCSE is difficult but after a lot of hard work and due diligence, you can reap the fruit of success. Secondly, my future plan is to continue my studies. No matter how many challenges I’m going to face, I will try to achieve the goals that are set by me and my parents. Lastly, once again, I am greatly and truly thankful to all the wonderful teachers, El Shaddai Refugee Learning Centre and God that have enabled me to achieve such good grades.
Hi, We are Yusha and Cherry. We were happy to return to school after the long lockdown because we really missed our friends and teachers. We were shy and a little nervous on the first day. We were looking forward to shaking hands with our friends but because of social distancing, we could not.
In the beginning, we were excited about online classes but after some time, we realised that face-to-face classes were much easier to interact with our teachers. We also can understand better than doing online.
We use our phones to do online classes, but we have the problem of Internet connection. At home, our Internet connections are very slow. Most of the time, we had to miss lessons. We wrote our homework in our exercise books and then sent a photo of the homework via WhatsApp to the teacher.
I (Yusha) had headaches every day from all the screen time. My eating schedule was irregular and I slept more hours than during the school days. When we are on Online classes we can eat during the class, sit anywhere, and do some other thing. Another problem is that we find online classes boring after some time.
We prefer face-to-face class because we can interact physically with the teachers and we can ask questions easily. Of course, safety always comes first. We must remind ourselves to wash our hands often and stay a safe distance from people in the bus. We must wear face masks to protect ourselves during this pandemic.
Despite all these challenges, we feel fortunate that we can still attend school by have online classes during the MCO. But some students cannot attend online classes as they do not have access to Internet connections and devices. So unfortunately, they miss their school lessons.
We hope everything will get back to normal soon. Then every single student will have the privilege of attending school without fear of the pandemic.
