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He had to lip-read to keep up
with class
By M. NIRMALA
and BRAEMA MATHI
HE IS deaf and one year younger
than his classmates, yet Lionel Heng Jian Yong, 15, outperformed
many of his schoolmates by scoring seven A1s in the O-level
examinations.
The St Joseph's Institution student is now in one of the top
junior colleges, National Junior College.
Lionel's mother, Mrs. Emily Heng, a housewife, said teachers
at SJI used wireless microphones with a special radio frequency
to help the students follow the lessons.
This frequency closes the distance between the students and
teachers, helping them to catch more of what the teachers
were saying in the classroom.
But Mrs. Heng added that Lionel still depended heavily on
lip-reading to keep up with lessons in class.
Besides Lionel, three hearing-impaired students at SJI passed
with at least six credits.
Said Mrs. Heng: "Lionel is a very driven boy and he wanted
to get eight A1s. I am the one who had to tell him not to
drive himself too hard."
She said Lionel, who was born deaf, enrolled in Primary 1
at the Canossian School for the Hearing Impaired at age five.
His good results in the Primary 4 streaming examinations allowed
him to transfer to a mainstream school, St Anthony's Primary.
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