The Daily Star yesterday honoured 733 students from the English-medium schools and colleges for outstanding results in the O-level and A-level examinations of 20052006.

Receiving the awards, the students vowed to build a prosperous and poverty-free Bangladesh. They also committed themselves to serving the people and making significant contributions to the nation-building efforts.

The hall room of the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre was packed out

much before the formal beginning of the awards ceremony at 9:00am.

The awardees of 56 schools started reaching the venue early morning braving the chilly weather. Along with them came their teachers, parents and well-wishers.

Valerie A Taylor, founder of the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), and British High Commissioner in Dhaka Anwar Choudhury graced the lively ceremony as the chief and special guests.

The "Nation Builders of Tomorrow" as the event was titled received the awards amid rapturous applause from the audience.

Editor and Publisher of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam welcomed the guests, principals and teachers and the awardees while former adviser of the caretaker government and Chairperson of Scholastica school Yasmeen Murshed delivered a vote of thanks on the occasion.

The four-hour gala event was also addressed by Alan Field, South Asia Regional Manager of Edexcel International, Imran Rahman, managing director of Brac Bank, and Stein Naevdal, chief marketing officer of Grameenphone.

Rihab Rubaiyat of Dhanmondi

Tutorial and Raqeebul Islam Ketan of International Turkish Hope School spoke giving their reaction to being honoured by the premier daily of the country.

In his speech, Valerie Taylor suggested that the students pursue a life "without fear and favour" to overcome the difficulties and sufferings they might encounter in their professional life.

Calling them the future leaders, she pointed out that the standard of a nation is judged by the attention it pays to its vulnerable groups.

"You are indeed the future leaders and builders of the nation,"

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she said urging the young scholars not to judge anyone from outside. "Man looks at the outward appearance but the God looks at the heart," she said quoting a line from the Bible.

"Your education, your great success in O- and A-level exams will help to equip you for adult life," she said.

Taylor further said, "You can help to change the world, your family, friends, college, and university by being the person you make of yourself."

Referring to the assembly of young talents, British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury said, "You are a testament to the potential of this country. You've proved that given the chance you can compete with the best and that you can even beat the best."

He added, "O and A levels are a gold standard in education and you have all achieved the global best results in that standard."

The Bangladesh-born UK envoy said, "Looking at you makes me proud of my [Bangladeshi] origin."

He also recalled the sprit of Ekushey February and the struggle for independence in 1971.

Terming the relations between Bangladesh and UK very strong, Choudhury said the UK is the largest bilateral donor and one of the large investors in Bangladesh. "It provides a $200 million annual assistance for the education sector in Bangladesh so that you can get better education."

He said he hopes that another Nobel Prize winner will come out from today's achievers. He thanked The Daily Star for bringing so many young Bangladeshi scholars together.

The Daily Star Editor-Publisher Mahfuz Anam called on the students to keep firm faith in the potential of this country.

"I urge you to develop a vision in your mind, a vision of Bangladesh as a prosperous country, a democratic country, a country where everybody, the poor and the rich, has a certain standard of life that makes us all feel very proud," he said.

He asked all to dedicate them-

selves to making Bangladesh a country to be proud of.

Suggesting that students should strive for an honest and dignified life, he observed that there is no alternative to professional integrity and hard work in achieving dignity in any profession.

"Please do not underestimate the importance of ethics in life. It may not appear so at the beginning, but it ultimately pays to be ethical in life," he said.

"Character based on ethics will give you extraordinary inner courage to go forward in life," he asserted.

Paying tributes to the teachers and parents for working hard as "unsung heroes", he said, "I cannot emphasise enough the roles that the parents perform in building the tomorrow's nation builders."

He asked them to build a home that inculcates curiosity in the minds of children.

"Please do not give them all the time the answers that you know because the answer you know may be an outdated answer," he said adding, "What you need is to inculcate curiosity in your child so that he or she can find the answer themselves and that's how a nation moves forward."

"Students of Bangladesh are some of the best in the world," said Alan Field of Edexcel International. He advised the students to maintain the standard of education and become a global partner.

Imran Rahman underscored the need for developing communication skills. "Knowledge becomes power when it can communicate and those who can communicate more achieve more," he noted.

"Our prime duty rests with our country and I hope one day I shall do something significant for this nation," said Rihab Rubaiyat, an O-level student of Dhanmondi Tutorial, expressing his feelings on receiving the award.

The ceremony began with recitations from the Quran, the Geeta, the Bible and the Dharmapada. The students rendered a few Bangla numbers in chorus.