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SINGAPORE: St Hilda's Primary School has produced the top PSLE student this year.
Natasha Nabila Muhammad Nasir is also this year's top Malay student.
With an aggregate score of 294, the Education Ministry said she has set a record as having achieved the highest marks in the 17 years since the current PSLE system was implemented in 1991.
Natasha, daughter of a housewife and a technician, said her results are unexpected.
This is because she was studying in a hospital during the exam period as her grandfather was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), just a day before her first paper.
Subsequent days were spent at the hospital after school hours. Her grandfather, who never recovered, passed away in the ICU recently.
The Gifted Education Programme student cited consistent work and love for reading as secrets of her success.
She said: "The secret of my success is reading. I have been reading since I was two years old and I think that has helped me a lot. Through reading, I gained a lot of knowledge."
Natasha also has good time management and a supportive home environment.
Her mother, Zaharah Othman, said: "When it's time to study, the TV will be switched off. The same goes for reading. We have reading time and usually before bedtime, she's free to read whatever she wants to read. I have been doing this for both my children."
This is the second time that St Hilda's Primary School has produced a top PSLE student. The first time was in 2000 when it produced the country's top student for that cohort, as well as the top Malay student for that year.
Students from neighbourhood schools also scored well.
One of the top Chinese students is Angela Leong from West Grove Primary School who scored 287, while the top Indian student with an aggregate of 285 is Vanessa Malishree Dharmaratnam from Raffles Girls' Primary.
"I'm very happy, quite surprised because I didn't expect to be the top Indian pupil in Singapore. I actually just hope to get into RGS, just above the cut-off point, so I'm very, very excited and I'm quite proud of myself," said Vanessa.
Santa Maria Priscilla Nicole from CHIJ Katong Primary clinched the top spot among Eurasian students.
And among the EM3 students, Ang Bing Jie from Mee Toh School and Rebecca Fan from Radin Mas Primary School are among those who scored Grade 1 for all EM3 subjects.
A total of 49,817 pupils sat for the PSLE this year – 798 pupils fewer than last year's cohort – and 5,176 were from the EM3 course. Of these students, 97.7 percent are eligible for secondary schools.
63.5 percent of these students made it to the Express course, 22.2 percent for Normal (Academic) course and 12 percent for the Normal (Technical) course.
1,152 pupils are assessed as not ready for secondary school in 2008 or more suited for vocational training.
- CNA/so
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