[Photo: Miss Hazwani Rahim (left) and Miss Haseenah Mohamed Yusoff (right), among the brightest at their madrasahs, will be pursuing university studies next.]

By Amelia Tan

AFTER more than a decade studying in a madrasah, two Malay students were hesitant about entering a polytechnic.

But the fears of Miss Haseenah Mohamed Yusoff and Miss Hazwani Rahim soon abated, and they will graduate as Ngee Ann Polytechnic's top performers this year.

The two topped their diploma programmes and will be among the 4,580 full-time students graduating from the polytechnic next week.

Among the brightest at their madra-sahs, Miss Haseenah and Miss Hazwani could have continued studying for their A levels, but they chose the polytechnic for its specialised education.

Miss Haseenah, 20, from Madrasah Wak Tanjong Al-Islamiah in Sims Avenue, had scored 6 As and a B for her O levels. Miss Hazwani, 21, who studied at Madrasah Al-Arabiah Al-Islamiah in Geylang, had scored 7 As.

They continued to excel in polytechnic, where they aced all their modules and made it to the Dean's List every year.

The girls said being trained to manage their time from a young age by having to juggle both mainstream subjects and Islamic studies has been key to their good performance at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

Miss Haseenah, who is studying civil and environmental engineering, said: 'I am used to organising my time carefully to ensure that I have enough time to revise all my subjects. You can say I've been trained to cope with stress well.'

Both were initially apprehensive about a polytechnic education, but now feel that their concerns were unfounded.

Miss Hazwani, who is graduating in horticulture and landscape management, said: 'Before entering polytechnic, I mixed only with my schoolmates from the madrasah who were Malay and Muslim. I was nervous as I didn't know if I could connect with the students from other races and religions. But I found that we have plenty of things in common. We deal with the same things like coping with the heavy school workload and demanding teachers.'

Being involved in co-curricular activities also helped them make friends easily. Miss Haseenah was a member of the Building & Environment Green Volunteers group which organises activities such as nature walks at parks for the public. Miss Hazwani was the treasurer of the Muslim Students' Society.

Next up is university. Miss Haseenah has a place to study environmental engineering at the National University of Singapore. Miss Hazwani will be heading to the University of Queensland in Australia to do a degree in applied science.

Both plan to pursue careers in environmental conservation.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.