Third SPM student dies during exam

A religious school student who had to take her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) papers in hospital died this morning, making this the third untimely death during this exam period.

Norsuwana Safawa, 17, of SM Agama Ittifakiah died at the Besut District Hospital at 5.12am Thursday.

She suffered from asthma and kidney problems.

According to a Bernama report, Besut district education officer Ab Halim Hassan confirmed this, saying that Norsuwana had earlier sat for her Bahasa Melayu 1 dan 2 paper at the hospital.

Norsuwana was diagnosed with kidney problems a few years ago and had since been undergoing treatment.

The burial was held after Asar prayer today at the Alor Lintang Muslim cemetery.

Also in Terengganu, one Mohd Nor Alif Harun, 17, of SMK Sultan Omar in Dungun, reportedly died after being in a coma for five days following an accident.

In Kelantan, 17-year-old Nur Syazwani Arifin, one of those expected to score 10A's in the SPM, died on Wednesday while doing her Bahasa Melayu paper at Sekolah Agama Maahad Saniah.

She was rushed to a hospital by her father after she fainted and fell from her chair in the examination hall.

The father, a school teacher, said he had driven his daughter to Tengku Anis Hospital upon being told that she had fainted, only for her to be pronounced dead on arrival at 9am.

Arifin, 48, said his daughter had complained of headache, backache and chest pains about two weeks ago but was diagnosed with possible gastric complications when he brought her to a clinic.

There are 470,395 candidates sitting SPM examination in 3,616 centres nationwide.