PENANG: Malay student Ahmad Khindir Ahmad Nazri is an outstanding student at SMJK Heng Ee, a Chinese secondary school in Penang.

As he emerged as the top student in class and top in Form Five besides bagging the best student award in Malay and Islamic studies, Ahmad Khindir was elected the school’s model student of the year.

He does not only excel in study, but is also the deputy head prefect, deputy head of the choir group, as well as vice chairman of his school’s police cadet corps.

The youngest among six siblings raised by a single mother, Ahmad Khindir is the only one attending a Chinese school.

He started going to a Chinese kindergarten at the age of five while his siblings attended Malay schools, sports, technical and missionary schools.

His mother, a clerk at a company, was very strict with her children in their studies, hoping they could attain better qualifications than her.

She loved her children and gave them room to decide for their own future, according to Ahmad Khindir.

Sending him to a Chinese school was an experiment of his mother in finding a promising path for her son.

Ahmad Khindir used to be very shy and dared not speak Mandarin for fear of making mistakes in front of people.

“It was tough initially, but my mother has been supporting me all the time,” he said, adding that his mother had encouraged him to communicate in Mandarin and had sent him to tuition classes, too.

“My mother is Chinese-illiterate. Nevertheless, she would seek help from friends and colleagues to check my homework,” he said.

The mother’s effort proved to be effective, and Ahmad Khindir made dramatic progress in learning Chinese.

To him, poor results motivated him to study harder.

“I will convert the pressure to strength to progress and not to let it drag me down,” he said.

He will sing to reduce stress and seek inner peace through prayers to help himself whenever he feels down.

Besides his mother, Ahmad Khindir is also grateful to his teachers and classmates who have been very patient and helpful in guiding him.

He has many Chinese friends and they have invited him to join them playing firecrackers, tossing yee sang and having reunion dinners with them during Chinese New Year.

As he is sitting for SPM this year, Ahmad Khindir has set a limit on browsing mobile phone so that he can focus on preparations for his examination.

He decided to study hard since Year 3 as a way to pay back his mother for raising him.

His sister posted videos of him on stage many times to receive awards in schools, and they went viral on social media garnering more than 200,000 likes and close to 10,000 shares on TikTok so far.

A total of 1,970 students are studying at SMJK Heng Ee, and Ahmad Khindir is among 35 Malay students of the school.