A PUPIL with visual impairment proved that disability is no barrier to excellence after scoring nine As in the Ujian Penilaian Kelas Al-Quran dan Fardhu Ain (UPKK) 2025, Kosmo! reported.
Nurul Aina Solehah Zainuddin, 12, from SK Kubang Ikan, was among the top scorers in the UPKK results ceremony held at Sekolah Integrasi Rendah Agama Jawi.
“I didn’t expect to get all As because the Akidah subject was quite challenging,” she said, adding that regular revision at home and encouragement from her teachers helped her excel.
Nurul Aina, who aspires to become a teacher, plans to pursue her secondary education in the Arabic language stream.
Her father Zainuddin Mat Ali, 59, a visually impaired teacher at SMK Bukit Besar, described the achievement as a blessing and the result of a collective family effort.
“She only had about two years to complete the UPKK syllabus, compared with the usual five years in Kafa classes, but she managed to catch up quickly,” he said.
Her mother Latipah Salleh, a special education teacher, described Nurul Aina as disciplined and obedient.
She also said the success reflected discipline, strong family support and the belief that physical limitations are no barrier to excellence.
> A 77-year-old woman’s traditional homemade kuih tepung talam remains a crowd favourite, despite Ramadan bazaars selling trendy and “viral” desserts, Harian Metro reported.
Som Abdul Halim, fondly known as Mak Njang, said she still diligently mixes and steams the kuih, ensuring every layer of her tepung talam retains the original taste she created in 1966 in her shop at Jalan Kubang Lembu in Jitra, Kedah.
What began as simple kitchen experiments 60 years ago while her husband worked in the rice fields has grown into an enterprise employing 14 workers, including her granddaughter.
The family once delivered orders by motorcycle before gradually expanding operations as demand increased.
On normal days, production ranges from 200 to 300 containers, rising to about 700 daily during Ramadan, with about 30 agents distributing the kuih across Kedah and Penang.
The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.
