KATHMANDU, MARCH 17

British Ambassador to Nepal Nicola Kathryn Pollitt has expressed gratitude to Pearson's PTE, an English language proficiency test, for helping Nepali students to enhance their English language to pursue their higher education in the native-English spoken countries.

Addressing the first 'PTE Partners' Meet', organized here in Kathmandu, she also thanked all the stakeholders, education consultants, and organizations for providing quality English language classes, proper consultations, and other services. She stressed that these services have been supporting students aspiring to get a higher education degree in the world's leading universities.

'It's a pleasure to see so many education consultants and representatives, and education institutions. You play an important role for Nepali students who want to study abroad. Congratulations to all of you on your work. I wish you greater success in going forward,' Pollitt said.

Reminding how English language skills like speaking and writing could be difficult in higher education, Pollitt stressed the need of preparing for this kind of knowledge before going abroad.

'English Language is so important for students going to study in popular higher education destinations. And that's why we want Nepali students to improve in English language tests,' she added. Further, she reminded me that Pearson's PTE and UK's Cambridge IELTS are now the leading English language test for the English language in Nepal. The recognition of these tests in education institutes in the UK, USA, Australia, and Canada, is popular among Nepalese students.

PTE, a standard English language test is one of the most preferred tests by Nepali students. Over 30,000 Nepali students took the test in 2022, which is the fourth largest country to take the test. PTE, the two-hour computer-based test, which never shied away from upgrading as per the time's demand is ready to launch a new platform Global Online Test Preparation (GOTP).

Premila Paulraj, Pearson UK director of Employability and Qualifications of South Asia, in the program said that GOTP is a user-friendly tool that will help students to learn and teachers to teach the PTE and also other English tests. 'These are the state-of-the-art digital platform that will transform a complete teaching and learning experience in the coming days,' Paulraj said.

The highly interactive GOTP is a platform to get study materials, take online or recorded classes, or even take a mock or diagnostic test. 'We aspect the Nepali students will make ultimate utilization of the GOTP, as we are especially concerned about the students here. All the eyes are on Nepal. So it is our responsibility to do better than what we did last year,' Paulraj added. She also stressed that the tool would help teachers and instructors of all backgrounds or countries to be on par with the best of the best or from the teachers from native-English-speaking countries.

Ozhan Thokas, Senior Vice President of Sales – Pearson ELL in a video message said that Nepal PTE's performance was excellent and they fulfilled all the capacity requirements. He also thanked the Australian and British embassies for their solidarity towards PTE.

Suman Krishna Shrestha, Business Development Consultant in Nepal and a higher education expert thanked all the dignitaries and expressed gratitude to all the stakeholders for making PTE the most desired test in Nepal.

The partners' meet was concluded awarding the top 10 highest achievers, top 3 performers which is Platinum, Gold and Silver and Pioneer Award to education consultancies that PTE courses and felicitating different stakeholders and leaders of the business.