---

All of the 51 Qalamino Special High School students of the first batch who sat for the 2001/2 Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate Examination have passed, 49 of them earned “Excellent” score. The students joined various Ethiopian universities and colleges – of whom majority of them kept excelling but few could not reach the finish line of undergraduate education easily. The scattering of those excellent students in the colleges and universities throughout Ethiopia and the failure of few ones to reach the finish line were not pleasant developments. Moreover, many individuals within the TDA realized early on that Qalamino Special High School would have limited contributions if the talented students of the School are not provided with best tertiary education. Hence, Mr Araya and colleagues came up with the idea of opening a science and technology institute around Mekelle.

---