UPSR Results: A special student with a very special result

UPSR Results: A special student with a very special result
By Zainuddin Muhammad

2008/11/14


KUALA TERENGGANU: The odds were stacked against him but when the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) results were announced yesterday, Muhammad Danial Zainuddin became the first special education candidate in the state ever to score all As. The 13-year-old student has come a long way since he was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit disorder at 3. Unable to sleep without medication until he turned 6, and unable to speak until he was 7, Danial started special education classes early at Sekolah Semangat Maju in Taiping, Perak.

In between speech therapy sessions and visits to the psychiatrist, he had little time to improve his social skills, said his mother, Rozina Mohd Ik-ram, 43.

A former business manager who quit her job to care for her eldest son, she said she noticed a little improvement in Danial's behaviour after he had spent two years in the special education class at Padang Hiliran.

"All of a sudden, he was not that hyper-active, and he developed a keen interest in reading.

"I was happy to notice that he could mix with his sister, Nurul Diana, and his brother, Muhammad Dini.

"In his third year there, his teachers thought it was time he joined students in the regular class and after a few glitches in the first few weeks, he has not looked back."

It was in Year Four when Danial began to show his academic prowess and it wasn't long before he emerged the best student in his class, beating the rest of his normal classmates.

Headmaster Md Sidek Besar said he was amazed at Danial's change as the following years saw him leading the pack of high achievers.

"He was not just an excellent student. In later years, he developed other skills, including being the school chess champion and runner-up twice in the state-level Quran recital competition .

"He still finds it hard to mix with other students, but I instilled self-confidence and responsibility in him by appointing him as prefect.

"I noticed he become better at handling responsibilities."

Sidek said the school had performed well in this year's UPSR as 21 out of 110 students, including Danial's sister, Nurul Diana, scored all As.

Nurul Diana said she was happy with her brother's achievement although she was a bit jealous with the attention he was getting.

"But he deserved it. My classmates and I tried hard hard to beat him all year but he was just too smart."

Meanwhile, Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said, who visited Danial at home yesterday, said he was proud that a special education UPSR candidate scored all As.



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