Da Qiao pupil overcomes dyslexia, difficult childhood to pass PSLE

SINGAPORE — He thought he was “just stupid”, struggling with reading, writing and spelling throughout kindergarten, so when he was diagnosed with severe dyslexia upon entering primary school, Sri John Albert David breathed a sigh of relief. 

But the diagnosis was only the beginning of a long struggle, as spelling continued to be difficult for him, while his trouble with reading also affected his Mathematics and Science grades. “I hate English. I will always ask who invented English,” said the bespectacled 12-year-old student from Da Qiao Primary School. “I felt demoralised because I couldn’t read or write.”

In the first term of his Primary Six year, he failed all of his subjects. Sri John, however, did not give up. Three times a week, he would first study with his friends after school at a student centre, before picking up his grandfather from a dialysis centre. 

His perseverance has borne fruit. On Thursday (Nov 24), Sri John, who was among the thousands to receive their Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) results, found that he performed better than in his preliminary exams. With a T-score of 156 points, Sri John, who managed to score grade 1 in Mathematics and Science, qualified for the Normal (Academic) stream in secondary school — no easy feat for a student who took foundational subjects.

A cheerful student, whom teachers described as a “livewire”, Sri John and his sister, currently an Institute of Technical Education (ITE) student, were raised by his maternal grandparents after their parents abandoned them. The siblings declined to elaborate on the subject.

Sri John’s grandfather George John, who has kidney failure, calls his grandson his “right hand” who helps bring him food and bathes him. But Sri John’s dislike of English as a subject concerned him. “Once, I saw him trying to read a paragraph from his homework and after looking at the first sentence, he gave up,” said Mr John, 68. “I was worried he couldn’t do well in PSLE.” To help him, Mr John would conduct spelling quizzes.

Noticing that he was demoralised, Mrs Chitra Devi Guna, Sri John’s Primary Six form teacher, suggested he take foundation-level subjects, which are meant for students who are not academically inclined. While his grandmother objected, as it meant Sri John would not be able to enter the Express stream, Mrs Guna pointed out that it was preferable to him failing his PSLE.

It was also Mrs Guna who suggested having an invigilator assigned to read exam questions to Sri John. The idea came after she read out a maths question to Sri John, and was surprised that he understood and could solve math concepts. Reading, she said, hindered his performance.

The school wrote to the Ministry of Education (MOE) to make a case for this special provision to be provided during the PSLE, and it was approved.  

Sri John’s struggle with school has not stopped him from motivating others. “When they complained about low marks for maths, I said to them, ‘I have dyslexia and personal problems but I can get high marks. So, why can’t you?’”

With a keen interest in robotics — a co-curricular activity he took up in Primary 3 — Sri John hopes to become an engineer. He is still debating whether to enter the Normal (Technical) stream, but for now, he is looking forward to a skateboard his grandfather is buying him as a reward for his results.

Asked what advice he would give to dyslexic students who share similar struggles, Sri John said: “It is like a race. You run and you will fall down. But you have to get up. You have to cross the finish line.”