SINGAPORE — Trudging through the rigours of being in a national team, playing for a professional club and doing well in the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma examinations was a delicate balancing act for Singapore Sports School (SSP) netballer Deborah Wong Weng Ee. 

Overwhelmed by the pressure to excel in both sports and studies, the 18-year-old, who was a member of the Republic’s under-21 netball team and the Magic Marlins netball club, would call home late at night whenever she “felt upset”. 

While her parents sleep “quite early”, her mother, an accountant, would always stay up and offer her a listening ear.

“It was this constancy that kept me going,” Miss Wong told reporters.

Her efforts did not come to naught. Today (Jan 5), she emerged as one of two top-scorers in the school’s pioneering cohort of IB diploma candidates, earning a score of 43 out of a maximum possible 45 points. 

Nineteen of the SSP’s student athletes sat for the IB diploma exams last November, 13 of whom scored 40 points or higher. Overall, the scores ranged between 35 and 43 points, with the average grade being 40 points. 

SSP principal Tan Teck Hock said the school had to devise ways to ensure the IB diploma programme was “athlete-friendly” and did not take time away from the athletes’ training programme. For instance, the school offers make-up classes for students who take part in local or international competitions.

Also, it offers students the option of enrolling in an Extended IB programme — as part of a Memorandum of Understanding between the school, the IB Organization and the World Academy of Sport inked last June — which allows students up to four years to complete the IB, beyond the typical two-year time frame. 

So far, nine SSP students have opted for the Extended IB programme.

For the graduating athletes, it was the flexible and holistic nature of the IB that led them to pursue the programme. 

“It suits my personality ... it (gave) me a lot of opportunity to look at the world and current affairs in a different light,” said bowler Daphne Oh Xin Yi, 18. She scored 41 points and will read zoology at the University of Western Australia in February. 

Shuttler Bernard Ong Soon Yang, 18, noted that the IB’s emphasis on independent learning was ideal, because he could engage in his own learning while overseas. He hopes to study medicine locally.

Elsewhere, ACS (Independent) turned in its best performance yet, with its students scoring an average of 41.84 points. 

The national average was 38.50 points. Of the 444 ACS (Independent) students who took the examinations, 41 earned perfect scores of 45 points, said the school. 

Worldwide, 81 students attained perfect scores. According to statistics by the IB Organization, 2,791 students took the exams in the May and November sittings last year, compared with 1,992 in 2011, although these figures included re-takes. 

The majority of Singapore students take the exams in November.

At SJI (International), the number of students doing IB has risen from 87 in 2011, to 164 last year. 

The spike, however, “simply reflects the growth in roll here at SJI International, as all students sit (for) the IB in their last two years”, the school said. “In 2011, our total roll was 693, while in 2015 it was 976.”