BEING a victim of robbery and assault when he was 16 was the turning point for Mr Paul Tan.
He had dropped out of school at 13, and was working part-time in a factory. The rest of the time he was hanging out with friends. But the enforced hospital stay after he was attacked gave him time to think about what he could have done to accomplish more. It spurred him to return to school.
The school which accepted him was the Geylang Serai Vocational Training Centre, which became part of NorthLight School. NorthLight was set up three years ago to give students who fail their Primary School Leaving Examinations repeatedly one last shot.
The 20-year-old became the 2008 NorthLight School Student of the Year and is now at ITE College East studying electrical technology.
He is one of two recipients of the Lee Hsien Loong Award for Special Achievement, given out to one outstanding student each from Northlight School and Assumption Pathway School who have done well and progressed to ITE. Mr Tan said the award had made his mother, a 46-year-old canteen vendor, very happy. 'After 20 years, I finally have an achievement. I've always let her down,' he said.
The recipient from Assumption Pathway School, formerly the Assumption Vocational Institute, was Mr Wesley Chan Zhuowen, 18, who also made good despite dropping out of school before.
Theirs was one of two new awards that made their debut at the 2009 Special Awards Presentation Ceremony at SEAMEO Regional Language centre yesterday.
The other five award categories were the Lee Kuan Yew Award for All-Round Excellence, the Prime Minister's Book Prize, the Lee Kuan Yew Award for Mathematics and Science, the Lee Kuan Yew Award for Outstanding Normal Course Students and the Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship to Encourage Upgrading.
The guest-of-honour, Minister of Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang, gave out the 120 awards to 109 students who achieved academic or all-round excellence.
One of them was new citizen Muhammed Noor Jamal, 23, who received the other new award - the Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Book Prize - along with five other former ITE students for having the best grades.
