Overcoming the odds
Missing school no hurdle for this little Miss
Three students – one who missed a year from school through illness, another who lost all his hair due to an almost rare condition and one whose kidneys stopped functioning – beat expectations and shine at the 2011 SPM exams.
KOTA BARU: Missing out on school for almost a year due to illness did not prevent Nur Syafiqa Zupli from scoring an impressive 11As in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations.
Not only that, the 17-year-old SMK Agama Naim Lilbanat student sat for the SPM a year before her peers as she passed the Penilaian Tahap Satu (PTS) exams during primary school, which allowed her to skip Standard Four.
She cried when she received her results at school yesterday, before receiving congratulatory hugs from her mother, teachers and friends.
“It is unbelievable. Due to my illness, I only attended one month of class during Form One. When I went back to school in Form Two, I had the lowest grades but with the support of my parents and teachers, I managed to catch up,” said Nur Syafiqa, who scored 5A+, 4A and 2A-.
Nur Syafiqa was ill with an undiagnosed sickness for most of 2007.
Her mother Haniza Mustapha, 45, said she was proud of her daughter’s achievement as she did not expect her to do so well.
“Even during her the exam period, my daughter’s revisions were affected as she could not concentrate,” said Haniza, a primary school teacher.
Nur Syafiqa said she aspires to be a medical researcher and study about incurable diseases.
The all-girl SMK Agama Naim Lilbanat produced six students who achieved 11A+ and over 30 students scoring straight As, the highest number for a school in Kelantan.
One of the straight A+ scorers, Nik Nur Fatihah Nik Zulkifli, had a rough time during the examinations following her father’s untimely death only a week before the exams.
Determined not to let it affect her, Nik Nur Fatihah kept herself calm by reading the Quran every day. She dedicated her results to her late father.