New award for New Zealand's top student

Education Minister Anne Tolley says a new award for New Zealand’s top scholarship student will be presented at a ceremony in Wellington tomorrow.

The inaugural Prime Minister’s Award for Academic Excellence will recognise the success of the country’s leading secondary school student, and will be presented at the Top Scholar award ceremony at Government House.

“This prestigious new award, to be presented by the Prime Minister, celebrates the student who produced an outstanding performance in scholarship examination results in 2010,” says Mrs Tolley.

“The winner will have the highest overall academic excellence out of nine Premier Award winners, who are New Zealand’s most academically gifted secondary school students.

“Recognising outstanding achievement will help encourage and motivate student performance at the very highest academic levels.”

The winner of the Prime Minister’s Award for Academic Excellence has been recommended by the Technical Overview Group (Assessment). TOGA is chaired by Professor Gary Hawke, and includes Professor Terry Crooks, Dr Alison Gilmore, Professor Cedric Hall, Professor John Hattie and Professor Jeff Smith.