WHILE her peers are playing with dolls, home-schooled Jette Joelle Darryl-Lim is taking six subjects under the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) in Penang.
The seven-year-old is unfazed by the challenges of studying at a level above her age as the IGCSE is equivalent to the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia.
When asked if she finds the subjects tough to master, the bespectacled girl answered emphatically, “not really”.
Her 38-year-old mother Lim Sha-Lyn realised that Jette was a special toddler since she could indicate that she wanted milk or diapers through gestures.
“When she was born, the nurses told me that Jette was different. She didn’t cry or bawled for milk. Instead, she tried to verbalise,” Lim said.
“When she gestured, I thought it was bizarre because children could only communicate through bodily actions at one year old.”
She took her daughter to meet several educational and child development experts.
“They found her to be exceptionally gifted,” she said.
Jette was in a kindergarten for a year at four years old.
She later joined a learning centre for a year, after which she was enrolled into a home-school academy, but it only took four months for her to realise the education system was too slow for her liking.
“There were claims that I was doing her work for her, they nit-picked on her work because she has beautiful cursive handwriting. They (the teachers) said it’s impossible for a six-year-old to write cursive. I thought it was enough. (The accusations) traumatised her,” Lim said.
That was when she and Jette started toying with the idea of taking IGCSEs.
“Last year, when I introduced the idea of sitting for the IGCSE, she wanted to do 21 subjects. I said no, as that was ridiculous. I said six is enough,” Lim said.
To mentally prepare for her examinations, Jette studies up to five hours a week at home.
She is currently studying six subjects, three with the help of a tutor. The remaining subjects are through an online educational portal.
She is studying English, Mathematics, Add Maths, Physics, Biology and Chemistry, and is scheduled to take the examination in May.
Lim is not concerned if her only daughter does not hit the mark in the upcoming examination.
“For me, age is not a barrier. I believe in child-led learning. As long as she is happy, nothing else matters,” she said.
And what does Jette intends to do after completing her studies? “I haven’t decided yet. I’d like to study science,” she said.