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40 graduate from ISM with high hopesBy Our Correspondent Forty high school students from 14 different countries graduated from the International school Moshi in a colourful ceremony held at the Moshi campus on May 22. The graduands are from Tanzania, Rwanda, Nepal, Ukraine, Germany, Sudan, Belgium, Ethiopia, Sweden, USA, Netherlands, South Africa, Finland and Gambia. The students obtained a full International Baccalaureate diploma which , according to the school’s head, Mr Andrew Scott, has now become the "gold currency" for many international and national schools throughout the world. The IB Diploma Programme is a demanding pre-university course of study, designed for highly motivated secondary school students aged 16 to 19. The programme has earned a reputation for rigorous assessment, giving IB Diploma holders access to the world’s leading universities. ISM, which is a boarding and day school operating on two campuses based in Moshi and Arusha in the northern Tanzania, was established in 1969 to serve the needs of the expatriate and local communities. Since then the school has grown to provide a fully accredited international education for children from three to nineteen years of age. It has about 240 students on each campus accommodating 45 different nationalities. During last Saturday’s graduation ceremony attended by about 400 people, the guest parent- speaker, Dr Eli Nangawe from Dar es Salaam, told the graduating students that the knowledge they had acquired should help them play part in shaping a more humane, peaceful and progressive world. He said, "producing individuals with a high sense of integrity, responsibility and diligence was the yardstick to be used to evaluate the extent to which the school vision and mission was on track." "Developing the understanding that there is no greater wealth than knowledge should propel you the IB graduates of today to greater heights of life’s attainment," Dr Nangawe remarked. Dr. Nangawe pointed out that being part of the global IB schools network, ISM has been working hard to keep up that prestigious recognition and live up to expectations of the international community. "One can surmise this from the diploma pass rate of nearly 90% in 2002/2003 academic year compared to 80% in 1994,"he explained, commending the school 's administration for the academic achievement. Dr. Nangawe is a seasoned Public and Community Health Consultant currently serving as National Professional Officer for Health System Strengthening at The World Health Organisation Tanzania. ISM is one of the first schools worldwide to enrol students for the IB diploma. The IB Organization, which was founded in 1968, has a non-profit education mission. It offers to schools a Diploma as well as Middle and Primary years programmes. There are 1,367 schools, including ISM, authorized to offer IB programmes. Those school, known as IB World Schools, offer a total of 1,600 IB programmes in 116 countries to approximately 200,000 students to-date.
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