A Singaporean mother, whose son was thought to be autistic, has graduated from an Australian University at the age of 17.

Pamela Liu shared her son's educational journey — and the ways in which she refused to give up — in a Facebook post on July 26.

At time of writing, the post had more than 600 shares and almost 200 comments.

Special needs school

At 10 years old, Sean Lim was recognised to have multiple learning abilities.

Despite being selected for the Gifted Education Program (GEP) in Singapore, the student was reportedly told to withdraw as they did not want him to spend a year there.

Lim was recommended to attend a special needs school.

However, Lim resisted the idea, as he felt that he did not belong there.

A psychologist that the family hired agreed as much.

The Ministry of Education and the school then offered the Lims an alternative: Sean would spend his days in the principal's office, and be excluded from all activities. This included recess and physical education.

A math teacher would also be assigned to him.

As Liu could not stand the thought of her son sitting alone in the office day after day, she turned down that option, determined to find a solution herself.

Eight grades in six months

So Liu brought Lim — along with four of his siblings — to Australia.

Two of her older children were in university, and Liu decided to home-school Lim and his sibling Jo on her own.

The psychologist told her that teaching Lim would endanger her, but Liu had no other option as Lim and two of his younger sibling were not Australian residents, which meant public schools could not take them in.

The private schools were full too.

Liu taught them for two hours every day in their rented space.

In just six months of homeschooling, Lim jumped from Grade Four to Grade 12, while Jo went from Grade Eight to 12.

Liu describes Lim as "attentive and a quick learner", and he eventually became the youngest to enrol in a university at the age of 11.

Jo enrolled university at the young age of 13.

Failing everything

However, the university gave Liu a condition -- that she has to sit in with Lim for every lesson he attended.

And she did so.

That amounted to 30 to 40 hours a week, in addition to bringing up three other teenagers and a younger son by herself.

But halfway through the degree, Lim started to fail everything.

He told his mother he did not like the fact that he had no same-age peers.

So Liu let him drop out of university and enrolled him in high school instead.

Socially advanced?

In high school, Lim found his peers "noisy and boisterous".

That was when Liu decided to double enrol him, both in university and high school.

On bad days, Lim would hide in the toilet, sometimes for the whole day.

It became so bad the school suggested they bring Lim to see a psychologist.

To Liu's surprise, the psychologist told them that Lim was "way ahead" his peers socially.

This came after Liu was told for the past five years that Lim was "socially poor", and was even advised to send him for therapy.

Skipping classes

When Lim turned 16, he could finally attend university classes by himself.

After sitting in for two years full-time and two years part-time of lessons, Liu finally had some time to herself (except that her youngest child also started university on the condition that she sat in for lessons).

But Lim started skipping many of his classes.

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He would be found sleeping in the library, and he was later diagnosed with narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder which causes one to fall asleep uncontrollably.

The university then made provisions so that exam hours are never at difficult times at the day for Lim.

The next year, Lim finally graduated from university at 17, and is now on his starting on his Masters this year.

Liu writes:

"This piece of paper is probably the most hard earned one for me this lifetime. It is also the most precious"

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