New CIE chief

William Bickerdike is the new regional manager (south Asia) of the Cambridge International Exami-nations (CIE), the Cambridge (UK)-based transnational examinations board which offers its IGCSE (class X) and A level (class XII) syllabuses and school-leaving exams and certification. Billed as the world’s largest provider of international qualifications for children in the age group 14-19, CIE also provides a primary school curriculum and offers teacher training and certification programmes. Last year nearly 100,000 students in 124 countries wrote the board’s school-leaving exams. An alumnus of London and St. Andrews universities from where he acquired Masters degrees in English and German, Bickerdike brings considerable experience of international teaching and administration to his Delhi-based job in which he succeeds Mark Bartholomew. Prior to signing up with the British Council in 1989, he taught English in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Kuwait and Morocco and headed the council in Pakistan and Cyprus. “There is growing interest in India about CIE qualifications because of revived interest in inter-national education. CIE qualifications are globally accepted as contemporary, and have a good reputation for developing critical thinking, problem solving and research skills. That’s why more than 2,000 schools worldwide including 500-plus in South Asia which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, are affiliated with us,” says Bickerdike. Although CIE has a low-profile presence in this country currently, this British examinations board has a long history in India. It introduced its school leaving exams in 1915 and right up to the mid 1960s, its Senior Cambridge (class X/ XI) secondary syllabus and school certificate was the first preference of India’s top public (i.e private, exclusive) schools such as St. Paul’s, Darjeeling, Mayo College, Ajmer, The Doon School, Dehradun, Bishop Cotton, Bangalore and Shimla etc. However in the flush of nationalism after independence, a large number of India’s top schools switched their allegiance and affiliations to indigenous examination boards such as CBSE and CISCE, with the latter widely regarded as the anointed successor of CIE. But following the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991 when a large number of ‘international’ schools boasting affiliation with offshore examination boards such as the Geneva-based IBO (International Baccalaureate Organi-sation) mushroomed across the country, CIE made a quiet re-entry into Indian school education, and has influenced a growing number of school managements to affiliate with it. Under Bickerdike’s watch, CIE’s immediate priorities in South Asia are to support affiliated schools to implement the A level syllabus and curriculum, and to popularise the board’s teacher training and development programmes to be delivered by intensively trained master trainers. “On July 3 we will present and detail our certificate programmes for teachers and master trainers via an interactive video conference which will link our headquarters in Cambridge with headmasters and principals of affiliated schools in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore. This video conference is our response to the huge interest in our teacher development programmes in the subcontinent,” says Bickerdike, who quite obviously isn’t wasting any time in replanting the CIE flag in India’s top bracket private…