WHEN she had to transfer to a class for weaker students last year, Nur Effy Naffisha, 12, was devastated.

But she was all smiles yesterday after emerging as one of Yangzheng Primary School's top foundation stream students in the 2009 Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

The foundation stream replaced the EM3 stream when the Ministry of Education (MOE) revamped its streaming system in 2004.

Nur Effy scored an A for Malay, and Band 2s for foundation English and Mathematics. With an aggregate score of 136, she had the school's second-highest score in the foundation stream. She is also one of only five foundation stream students in the school who qualified for the Normal (Academic) stream - a rare achievement for students from her stream.

Most of these students join the Normal Technical stream.

She remembers the day when her teacher told her that her grades weren't good enough to stay in her class.

"I was so sad that I cried in school," she revealed.

Her form teacher, Ms Narayanasamy Tamizmalar, said it was a wake-up call for Nur Effy. She said: "I remember scolding her the first day I met her. I told her she had to wake up, and that there was no way she was going to leave the school without proving herself."

But Nur Effy faced challenges both in school and home. She was constantly failing her maths exams and felt discouraged all the time.

She doesn't live with her parents. Instead, she lives with her grandparents in a four-room flat in Serangoon.

Money issues

Nur Effy's mother, Madam Julianah Johari, 35, a housewife, said the family's finances are tight. Her husband, who works for a pest control company, takes home about $1,000 a month and has to support her and their six children.

She said: "My parents give Nur Effy about $2 a day and we try to give her some pocket money whenever we can."

She sees Nur Effy only on weekends, when they spend time together at Madam Julianah's home in Bukit Panjang.

She said: "I would like to spend more time with her, but it's difficult with so many children to look after. My husband also works long hours and doesn't spend much time at home." But Nur Effy persevered, putting in more than four hours of revision daily, mostly on her own, in the months leading up to the PSLE.

To improve her maths, she sought help from her uncle and attended remedial classes at school whenever she could.

Ms Tamizmalar described her student as "very focused".

She said: "She took my words seriously and she worked very hard. She would stay in school to finish her work, then go home to study."

Her hard work showed in the vast improvement in her grades over the past year. Said Ms Tamizmalar: "When she first joined my class, she could barely write a composition. Her writing skills have improved a lot.

"She's very motivated, and is always the first to volunteer for any school activities." Nur Effy's maths teacher, Mr Jalaludin Sahar, added: "When Nur Effy first joined the class she used to score less than 30 out of 100 for her maths exams. We never thought she would pass." He said he spent time helping her re-learn some of her maths concepts.

He said: "I told her she could do it. Her good results are a result of her own hard work. As her teachers, what we did was to motivate and encourage her."

Nur Effy's next goal is to enrol in her dream school, Xinmin Secondary. She said: "I've heard a lot of good things about the school - that it's a good place to study. I hope I can get in."

This article was first published in The New Paper.