\n<\/p>\n
On the first day of Secondary 4, Nabeel was determined to turn over a new leaf.<\/p>\n
He even told his younger brother that morning: “You know, today is the first day of school, I’m going to be the best there. I’m going to start attending more, make my mum proud.”<\/p>\n
Instead, he found out that day that he could no longer attend school because\u00a0his family owed the school around S$20K in unpaid fees \u2014\u00a0S$11K for him and S$9K for his younger brother.<\/p>\n
Nabeel, who holds a Malaysian passport but was born in Singapore and had studied here his whole life, said: “Because I’m not a Singaporean, my school fees were always higher than usual. So the school said we can’t come into school unless we pay off.”<\/p>\n
Nabeel subsequently moved to Johor Bahru, where he spent an entire year out of school, which took a lot of getting used to.<\/p>\n
“Like, I was really unproductive, you know? I just play games, eat, go back to sleep. You know, I was really isolated, and I wasn’t familiar with everywhere I was,” he recalled.<\/p>\n
The year of isolation took its toll.<\/p>\n
“Before this, I was always so outgoing, and I could speak to people really well. But ever since isolating myself, I didn’t really talk to people in public. Like, I couldn’t ask where the toilet was, I couldn’t ask how much this was, I was even scared to go and order food, you know?” he said.<\/p>\n
Despite everything, Nabeel says he isn’t angry with his parents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Honestly, they were already working hard enough, and just because they couldn’t pay for my school fees doesn’t mean I get the right to be angry at them,” he said.<\/p>\n
Nabeel eventually stumbled upon an episode of CNA documentary series Shutdown<\/em> about Project Starfish, an academic coaching programme which prepares out-of-school youths aged 16 to 21 to sit for their N-Levels as private candidates.<\/p>\n The thumbnail caught his attention for a very obvious reason.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “The thumbnail said ‘dropouts’. I was thinking to myself, ‘Wait, I’m a dropout,'” he recalled.<\/p>\n He found the programme’s email address in the description and managed to secure an interview.<\/p>\n Now, Nabeel travels from JB to Singapore every Monday to attend classes.<\/p>\n “And now I’m here every week. Honestly, it’s the best part of my week. I wish I was here more days,” he said.<\/p>\n Getting accepted into the programme also gave Nabeel the push he needed to start rebuilding his life.<\/p>\n “So once I knew that I secured a spot, I told myself that I should do better. And instead of making myself feel so helpless, I started to do things that I enjoyed. I started cooking, I started going to the gym, and I tried my best to put myself out there again,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “And honestly, I feel like it’s the best thing that I’ve done for myself this year, as I’m not so hopeless anymore. And I feel great going outside, and I feel good talking to people, and I feel happy to be awake now,\u201d Nabeel added.<\/p>\n Nabeel hopes to complete his N-Levels, move on to O-Levels and eventually enter polytechnic to explore his passion for culinary arts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n