Orang asli girl rises against challenges to score in SPM

IPOH: Shamien Seliman,18, emerged as the best student from the orang asli community with 7As and 2Bs despite a lack of internet facilities in her village.
The teenager from SMK Seri Iskandar Bota, who aspires to be a lecturer, was presented with an appreciation certificate by Perak Education director Rozi Puteh Ismail in a ceremony here today. She was accompanied by her mother Dayang Kim Duo from Kampung Tebuh Hangat in Bota Kanan.
"My greatest challenge was to learn the English language as my friends in the community do not speak it. I had to communicate with my Chinese friends to grasp the language and also seek assistance from my eldest sister to use internet facilities in the town," she said.
Shamien scored A for English, Bahasa Melayu, Moral, Additional Mathematics and Biology.
She scored A+ for History and Mathematics and B in Physics and Chemistry.
"Group studies helped me to achieve good results," said Shamien.
Meanwhile, a total of 27 students from 17 schools in Perak scored A+ in all the SPM subjects while the state average grade (GPN) dropped.
Among them are Tan Li Ping from SMK Malim Nawar, Chong Boon Keat and Shee Hong Lin, both from SMK Horley Methodist Teluk Intan and S. Anbarasan from SMK Kampung Jambu Taiping who sat for 11 subjects. The others took nine and 10 subjects.
A total of 105 students sat for 11 subjects in the state while five candidates took up 12 subjects.
Rozi said the GPN dropped to 5.20 last year to 5.01 in 2013.
"The GPN of students in urban areas also saw a decline from 4.93 in 2013 to 5.13 last year," he told reporters here today.
The performance from rural students also dropped to 5.57 from 5.34 in the previous year.
A total of 934 students scored A+, A and A- in all the subjects compared to 1,276 in 2013.
On the Subject Average Grade (GPMP), Rozi said moral education took a big dip of 5.04 compared to 4.54 in the previous year.