Every year British Council organises a Staff Award on three segmented sectors: cultural relationship, customer support and entrepreneurship. All 110 country offices participate in this global award each year.
This year the Bangladesh Examinations Team won the Cultural Relations Service Award in the British Council Staff Awards for their significant contribution in delivering customer service and strengthening cultural relationship.
The team held a series of examinations from January until June 2013 without any cancellation, despite there being more than 30 hartals (strikes) in the period. It was the most challenging operating circumstances faced by any other country over the last year. The award was given to acknowledge the accomplishment of the team for providing exceptional service to external customers and colleagues.
In an interview with Dhaka Tribune, British Council Country Director Rosemary Arnott said: “It is very important that the exams take place as one would rather take exams than wait a year. The Exams team was very committed and went on to extraordinary lengths to make sure that none of the exams were cancelled due to hartal.”
The Exams team worked extensively for making this successful as there were 80,000 examinations held in January to June period.
During hartals exams were rescheduled and at times ended at 2:45 am after which the Exams team members needed to complete all administration tasks, travel back to Fuller Road to deposit exam scripts. They would leave office at 5am and be back in office by 8 am to hold next day’s examinations. With the continuous political unrest examination in usual hours were not possible and had to be rescheduled at midnight.
She also said: “These midnight exams, there is something magical in that, everybody is making extra effort to sit in that room.”
Rescheduling exams at midnight led to another problem – the booked venues had to be changed due to disruption from hartal. The rescheduled times and venues were promptly communicated through text messages and Facebook.
Talking about her experience in Bangladesh Rosemary said: “To me, it is the best of Bangladesh and the best in the UK that creates the best in the world, who together worked in achieving this global award. Despite cyclones, strikes and political turbulences they keep going. People are incredibly resilient here. There is something exceptional about Bangladesh. We get to learn, connect and get energised by the spirit of the people in Bangladesh continuously.”
As for future endeavours of modernising, British Council plans to re-launch their services at Fuller Road office, which will be take advantage of technology, accommodate multimedia extensively, incorporate cultural events, and bring the library in matching demands of people.
