A special salute is due to some, and an extraordinary effort from others

The National Senior Certificate results are out.  These results mark the culmination of 12 years hard work for the class of 2021. Receiving their results is a life moment of celebration for those matriculants who are finally seeing the fruits of their toil.

We join in celebration with those who succeeded in their exams. Your efforts deserve a special salute after the Covid-19 disruptions you navigated in your final two years of high school.  The pandemic, which has so far infected over 3.5 million people in SA, has not only killed 93,700 of them but significantly altered  learning processes.

Lockdowns and other safety protocols cost pupils a significant amount of quality time with both peers and teachers. School communities — pupils, teachers, parents and support staff — had to adapt to learning and teaching that was a hybrid of online and face-to-face tuition. Sport was cancelled  for the better part of two years. Social distancing protocols required pupils to alternate  class days with other pupils, halving their contact sessions every week.  

Some pupils lost relatives, teachers  and even classmates to the virus. Yet, with all that agony, these young people soldiered on, wrote their exams and passed them. We salute all of you for a job well done.

As you celebrate receiving your results, many of you look forward to a new chapter of tertiary education. This leg of the journey contains no fewer pitfalls and challenges.  Hold to your vision and direction; go and conquer.

For those who did not do as well in their exams as they wished — akulahlwa mbeleko ngakufelwa (never despair in the face of adversity). You have various avenues to explore when it comes to rewriting exams.  

The school calendar for 2022 has just commenced. For those writing matric exams at the end of it, start working now. There is no time to waste.

Education authorities, we appeal to you: do not fail the children. Provide them with all the learning tools they need to realise their dreams. Already there are alarm bells of a wobbly start to the academic year.

On Wednesday this paper reported that less than a third of schools in the Eastern Cape had received their stationery from the department; the province does not have enough classrooms; uncertainty over scholar transport lingers because service providers are yet to be paid  for 2021.  Each of these setbacks has a bearing on the coming matric exams.

Each must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

DispatchLIVE