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HE WAS 12 when, in 1998, he moved with his family to Singapore from India.
At that age, pupils here generally take the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).
But the man who only wanted to be known as Mr Anas B found himself in Primary 2 because he could barely speak a word of English.
By the time he took his PSLE, he was 16. He went on to take his N levels when he was 20.
Mr Anas, a permanent resident (PR) who is now 25, recalled how it was not easy for him to make friends.
"Because of the age gap, the level of thinking between my classmates and me was very different," he said.
His physical appearance also created a barrier.
"It was weird. I had facial hair when I was in Primary 6 because I was already 16, but none of my classmates had it at that time," he said.
Although Mr Anas stood out from his classmates because of his age, recently-released data from Census 2010 showed that he was not alone.
Last year, there were 804 students aged 15 and above attending a primary level of education.
As for those attending a secondary level of education, there were 725 pupils who were aged 20 and above.
These students were Singapore citizens or PRs. The figures were part of the Census of Population 2010 Statistical Release 1.
The Singapore Department of Statistics spokesman told The New Paper that those attending primary level refers not only to students attending Primary 1 to 6 but also those in "special classes for the educationally sub-normal".
But he could not provide a further breakdown on how many of the 804 students last yearwere attending these special classes.
Mr Anas, who is hoping to enrol in an Institute of Technical Education (ITE), said he succeeded in making only one friend in primary school.
That friend drowned in 2005.
He did not have any friends in secondary school, he said.
Said Mr Anas: "I was a person in a desert and knowledge was my only friend. I spent a lot of time in the library reading books."
He went to Secondary 1 when he was 17 and was in the Normal Academic course. His loneliness then, it seemed, was partly due to the age gap between him and his peers.
Mr Anas persevered with his studies and passed all four subjects when he sat for his N levels in 2006.
Couldn't retake
However, he was not allowed to take his O levels.
"My school told me I was too old to sit for the O-level examinations," he claimed.
But a Ministry of Education spokesman said that while there are age limits to sitting for the O levels in mainstream schools, age was not the factor in Mr Anas's case.
In his case, the issue was one of scores.
According to the promotional criteria in the year he took his N levels, he needed to obtain an aggregate not exceeding 10 points for his best three subjects.
He also needed to score a Grade 5 or better in English to be promoted from Secondary 4 to Secondary 5 Normal Academic course.
Mr Anas scored Grade 4 for his English, but his aggregate score was 14 for his three best subjects.
He added that his teachers recommended that he take his O levels in a private school, but he found it too expensive.
His father earns about $1,000 a month running a provision shop, while his mother is a housewife. Mr Anas has two other siblings and the family lives at the back of a shophouse in Bendemeer.
Not wanting to give up, Mr Anas appealed at the end of 2006, but was rejected. He tried again, in the first week of school in 2007. He was rejected again.
After a year of waiting around, he decided to serve national service from 2008. He completed it in April last year.
Mr Anas is now trying to get into a course in an ITE to learn office skills. This is what keeps him going in spite of the obstacles he has faced so far.
He said: "I hope to make it to ITE so that I can forget about the past and start a new chapter of my life in society."
This article was first published in The Business Times.
