My SAITM Story
By Ammar Jawfer –March 18, 2017
Ammar Jawfer
Why London Syllabus?
I am a proud product of Gateway College, Colombo. We were abroad as my father was working in the Sri Lankan Embassy, Riyadh, KSA. Therefore, I had already started my education at the Sri Lankan International School, Riyadh, in the Edexcel syllabus and therefore had to follow it when we returned to Mother Sri Lanka. One ought to bear in mind, that getting entry into international schools are not as easy as they perceive. There are waiting lists almost similar to getting into state schools and they also have placement tests for to sit for to get entry. Just walk into any international school in Colombo and you will understand what I am talking about. The false ideology where if you have money, you can enter into any international school is completely baseless.
I believe that I was blessed to have received my education at Gateway College, the brain child of late Mr. Alles, who was our chairman. He nurtured us to be great individuals and he repeatedly stressed the importance of giving back to this country as he has done so by example. He also encouraged us to become all round students, not just sticking to studies alone or sports alone but to be able to do both, to balance it and to then strive and achieve further. We followed in none other than that pathway and were able to reap various benefits as time went on.
I sat for ordinary level examination, 2 months after having continuously trained and participated in our Annual Inter-International Athletics Championship and managed to walk away with an Edexcel High Achiever Award. I believe that I was able to do this with the backing and guidance of our dear chairman, Mr.Alles and my teachers to whom I am ever so indebted. It wasn’t easy.
Why SAITM?
In 2011, for my Advanced levels, apart from the 4 subjects in the bio-science stream, I did 2 additional subjects, which were per my interest in them. I managed to get good results in that too and it was hard. With prefect ship duties, sports and other activities at school, time was the ultimate factor.
During this period, I was contemplating on my final studies. I had already decided to do medicine. I wanted to become a doctor and I had various reasons for that, which were mainly three. The first was the ability to serve people and not just people, but the people of this country. Another reason was my mother who is sick and suffering from a chronic disease. She has supported me in every juncture and I believe that I owe her as well as my father a lot for everything that I have achieved in my life as they are the 2 pillars of my life which I was blessed with from God Almighty. So I wanted to try and see if I can find out a way to find a cure for the people suffering from this disease as well.
The final reason is a personal quote and motto of mine,
“To make someone smile is something…
But.. to make someone smile and know that you are a part of the reason for that smile, is something words cannot explain”
I wanted to do medicine in Sri Lanka, so I checked out the state universities and there was no way that I could join them. I looked in to Sri Jayawardenapura University because if you had studied abroad you could enter through the foreign quota but I wasn’t eligible because I should have done my exams abroad for that. So although my batch mates who remained back at Riyadh, were able to get in to the Sri Jayawardenapura University having studied the same syllabus that I did, I wasn’t able to. I then looked in the Kotelawala Defence University but at that time, yet again, there was no entry method for a student who had studied the Edexcel Syllabus. The only option I had was to go abroad for to do medicine. We checked various places and the total cost inclusive of the tuition fee, travelling cost, food and other daily expenditure at a relatively good SLMC recognized university was roughly at a minimum of around 7 million Sri Lankan rupees. This was with the additional difficulty of having to learn the language of that country, to be dependent on translators, to be able to cope and live in different conditions as well. Having learnt from my friends and seniors that this wasn’t relatively easy and a simply fairy tale as some people describe it to be, I still wanted more options. And not to mention the fact that having studied and finished medicine abroad, one has to come back here and sit for the Act 16 exam at which there was a pass rate of 13%! What kind of a mental block is that with regard to spending so much money and coming back and not being able to pass this test and practice as a doctor in mother Lanka?
