Indian scores highest in Trinity College exams

BANGALORE: City-based communication teacher Dr Zulfia Shaikh has set a world record, scoring the highest marks in the Licentiate Level Teaching Communication Skills (LTCL) Examination in the subject of Teaching Effective Communication held by the prestigious Trinity College, London.

Zulfia, also a nutrition expert, said she scored 85 per cent marks, making her the world record holder in this exam.

Zulfia, who said she was the first Indian to sit for the LTCL in the subject of effective communication, has broken the earlier record of 78 per cent.

According to the Bangalore representative of the Trinity College Drama and Speech, "Zulfia is the world record holder in the teaching communication skill variant."

The achievement qualifies her to teach in UK and the exam is rated as an equivalent to a bachelor's degree in the subject by the UK University Certification authorities, an official of British Council, where Trinity College recently felicitated her for achieving this rare honour, said.

The components of the LTCL comprises a three hour written test, a viva, a demonstration class and submssion of a thesis. Zulfia who sat for the examination in October last year spent nearly a year preparing for it.

"Since there is no fixed syllabus, one only had the Trinity College brief on the examination to rely on. I prepared by reading several books on the subject and sourcing information through the net", said Zulfia, a mother of three.

Zulfia, who runs the Bangalore School of Speech and Drama, here says that she had decided to take the examination since she was regularly asking her own students at the school to sit for the other levels of examinations conducted by Trinity. "I wanted to to be well qualified since I run the school", she said.