KENINGAU: Two secondary schools here obtained increases in the percentage of passes in the SPM examination last year.
Despite a decrease of one percent in the pass rate, St Francis Xavier’s produced a student, Joycelyn John Lainsin, who obtained 11 As.
Joycelyn scored As in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Moral Studies, History, Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English For Science and Technology (EST) and Visual Arts.
School principal Johnny Apin said the success achieved by Joycelyn is a pride to the school, teachers, to Joycelyn and her parents.
Besides Joycelyn, two other students who obtained 10As and 9As and 1B were Atiqah Muslim and Marlyn Shenon Anthony Poh respectively.
Apin said despite the school obtaining a 98.8 per cent pass rate out of 162 students who sat for the examination last year compared with the 100 per cent pass in 2009, the quality had increased.
Meanwhile, Joycelyn who was accompanied by her father, John Lainsin, was elated but surprised since she did not expect to achieve 11As.
She said the result of her effort was due to the encouragement and help of her teachers, her parents and friends.
“The secret of success was to focus on my study at nights and early mornings. Frequent revisions and attending tuition classes, especially in chemistry, were also factors contributing to it,” she said.
Joycelyn who aspires to become an engineer, said self discipline and hard work are very important.
Meanwhile, three SM Ken Hwa students also received outstanding achievements in the examination last year.
All three students obtained 10 As. They are Leong Chew Yang, Tarshandiny A/P Ramamoorthy and Aleka Erica Elizabeth Fernandez, said school principal Cheah Chu Tai yesterday.
She said the pass rate had increased to 90 per cent compared to 86.2 per cent in 2009.
Tarshandiny who scored 10 As, wishes to continue her studies in a medical school to realise her ambition to become a doctor.
Aleka who also scored 10 As, said she learned more in class. The daughter of a medical doctor wants to follow in the footsteps of her parents.
Leong meanwhile who aspires to become an engineer having scored 10As in the examination, said high discipline and effort can achieve greater success.