Best of the bunch: Singapore students clinch top two spots

Jan 25, 2008
Best of the bunch: Singapore students clinch top two spots
But top group has 11 foreigners compared to eight S'poreans
By Ho Ai Li and Jessica Lim

WHEN Pearlyn Ler re-entered the Singapore school system at Primary 5 after two years in the United States, she could hardly understand a word on the Mandarin news bulletins.
Yesterday, an A2 for Higher Chinese turned out to be the only so-called blemish in Pearlyn's O-level results.

The Singapore Chinese Girls' School (SCGS) student scored nine A1s and one A2, making her one of two top O-level students this year.

While her command of English was strengthened by interacting with native speakers in the US, she worked hard to brush up her Chinese - by speaking Mandarin to her cousins, for instance.

She did well enough to read Higher Chinese, but her grades were still sometimes below her expectations.

'I didn't feel very secure about Chinese. Sometimes, I couldn't answer the questions asked in comprehension tests,' said Pearlyn, who has a younger brother.

However, she scored an A1 for her third language, German.

Language also proved to be the 'Achilles heel' of the other top student, Kim Chan Xinhui, 17, from Methodist Girls' School. She had A1s for all subjects except Japanese, her third language, for which she scored an A2.

The two top students stood out for being Singaporean, as this year's pick of the O-level crop featured 11 foreigners out of 19.

Over the past few years, foreign students, especially scholarship holders, have dominated the top ranks, with top Singaporean students opting to bypass the O levels for six-year integrated programmes that take them to the A levels or International Baccalaureate.

In general, not more than 20 per cent of a school's places are given to foreign students.

The trend of foreigners taking top placings started with the 2005 O levels, with a dozen out of 39 students. Then it was 12 out of 25 for the 2006 exams.

Six of the 11 foreign top students this year hail from China. Malaysians and an Indonesian make up the rest.

All the top students from Catholic High and Crescent Girls' - six in all - are foreign students on scholarship.

Hu Yiqing, 18, the only child of a government official and university professor, arrived from Jiangsu on a scholarship to start Secondary 3 at Crescent Girls.

And like most of her peers in the same boat, she struggled with English initially.

'There was a time I went to McDonalds and instead of asking for French fries, I asked for fried rice,' said Yiqing, now at Hwa Chong Institution.

Likewise, Catholic High's Tan Tzer Han, 17, from Penang, had to work on his English when he received a scholarship here to start Sec 3.

He failed his first English test, but started compiling word lists which he would commit to memory. He also read two English books a week.

Kim, the youngest of the three children of an engineer and insurance manager, hopes to study science.

Pearlyn, whose father is a senior technician and mother, a housewife, hopes to become a gynaecologist.

'I think it's wonderful to be the first to see miracles happening every day and to play a part in them,' she said.