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Teen who was beyond parental control aces N-Level exams, now wants to help troubled youth

SINGAPORE — She was drinking, smoking and sniffing liquid petroleum to get high at the age of 11.

Nur Syawalliah Rahmat, a Bartley Secondary School student, poses for a photo after receiving her N-Level results on Dec 17, 2018.

Nur Syawalliah Rahmat, a Bartley Secondary School student, poses for a photo after receiving her N-Level results on Dec 17, 2018.

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SINGAPORE — She was drinking, smoking and sniffing liquid petroleum to get high at the age of 11.

At 13, Nur Syawalliah Rahmat landed in Pertapis Children’s Home. She had refused to go for her year-end exams in Secondary 1 and her stepmother, at her wits’ end and tired of coaxing her to go to school, called the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

Syawalliah was placed in the Singapore Girls’ Home when she was 14 and she remained there for nearly three years, after her stepmother filed a Beyond Parental Control order.

Turning 17 on Monday (Dec 17), Syawalliah received what she said was the “perfect birthday present” for herself: She was among the top-performing students of her Normal (Academic) cohort at Bartley Secondary School.

Her score of nine points in English language, mathematics and her three best subjects allows her to apply for the Polytechnic Foundation programme. The one-year programme prepares students for entry into relevant diploma courses and is an alternative to the Sec 5 year, as N-Level graduates under the programme will not sit for the O Levels.

Syawalliah, who was released from the Girls' Home earlier this year, plans to study psychology at either Temasek or Nanyang Polytechnic and hopes to become a guidance officer, following in the footsteps of the Girls’ Home officer who has been the most influential figure in her life — Ms Siti Natashah Mohd Nah.

Speaking to TODAY before she received her results on Monday, Syawalliah said: “She made me feel like I was not alone. Without Ms Natashah, I don’t think I will be who I am, where I am now." 

She added: “My friends all think I’m crazy to want to counsel difficult youths… I know it’s a thankless job and I must be prepared to be rejected (those being counselled)... but if I manage to impact just one person's life, I think I’ll be the happiest person in this world.”

LETTING GO OF ANGER

Syawalliah’s parents divorced when she was one year old. When she was 11, her father was in jail for substance abuse and her older sister left to live with their biological mother.

Syawalliah lived with her stepmother, Ms Yamte Erma, but she was often alone at home as her stepmother was busy with work.

Looking for ways to fill the void from feeling “left behind”, she started smoking cigarettes and consuming alcohol. Through her friends’ older cousins, she got hold of lighters and sniffed the liquified petroleum within to get high.

She also often got into fights with her classmates. “Every little thing would tick me off,” she said. “Every negative emotion made me feel angry and just led to fighting.”

After Ms Erma called the authorities, Syawalliah felt betrayed and continued getting into fights at Pertapis Children’s Home.

When she was put in the Girls’ Home in 2015, the regime was much stricter and Syawalliah said: “I was literally behind metal bars, placed under tight security. I could not get used to it.”

She met Ms Natashah who, at the time, was beginning a new role at the home. They did not click at first and Ms Natashah, 27, told TODAY: “She used to be such a stubborn, unmotivated person, totally uncommitted to anything.”

However, after hearing the counsellor’s account of her own struggles with loneliness, Syawalliah felt she could finally relate to someone who understood her.

“So whatever troubles I had, I poured out to her. I broke down in front of her many times. She didn't give up on herself, she didn’t give up on me, so I realised I shouldn’t give up on myself,” Syawalliah said.

She attended classes at the Girls’ Home, but later set the goal of returning to a mainstream secondary school.

In the second semester of last year, she was accepted by Bartley Secondary. To her teachers’ surprise, she fit right in with her classmates.

Madam Suriani Khailani, her Malay language teacher, said that she was also very mature and responsible.

To Syawalliah’s surprise, none of her schoolmates discriminated against her, even after finding out that she was residing at the Girls’ Home.

“They even shared their notes and helped me whenever I had questions with schoolwork,” Syawalliah said, adding that a classmate encouraged her to take up netball as a co-curricular activity.

Now living with her 45-year-old technician father, Syawalliah said that she has let go of her past anger and called what her stepmother did a blessing in disguise. She is able to have conversations with the both of them now.

“When I think about my past, I can’t believe I was like that, so childish and immature,” she said with a chuckle.

Ms Erma, 44, said that she was “proud” to see how much Syawalliah has grown. “I also gave her a challenge when she first started school. I told her actions speak louder than words, so getting good results would prove that she has discipline and show the change,” the stepmother said.

Ms Natashah, who managed to make her way to Bartley Secondary after Syawalliah received her results, said that she felt proud and happy. “Now she has a goal. She knows what she wants to do and how she is going to do it,” the Girls’ Home officer said.


N-Level results 2018: Higher passing rate, more students promoted

Some 99.5 per cent of 9,917 students from the Normal (Academic) stream passed this year’s exam, a slight improvement from 99.4 per cent last year.

The Ministry of Education and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board said on Monday (Dec 17) that more students also made it to Secondary 5 this year, with 76.9 per cent of students from this stream eligible for promotion, up from 76.6 per cent last year.

These students obtained an aggregate score of no more than 19 points in English, mathematics and the best three subjects (ELMAB3), and at least a Grade 5 for all subjects used in the computation of the ELMAB3.

In total, 4,715 students from the Secondary 4 Normal (Technical) course took the exam. The passing rate this year for students from this course is 97.5 per cent, up from 96.6 per cent last year.

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