Greenpoint Secondary School in East London achieved one of the best results in the province for government schools in 2018.
And to honour this achievement, the school invited the matric achievers and their parents to a function on Friday at the school.
The school’s matric pass rate was 95.2%.
The class of 2018 chalked up 26 distinctions, which were shared among 16 pupils who were honoured.
Of its107 full-time Grade 12 pupils, only five failed their senior national certificate.
A total of 55 achieved bachelor’s passes and 37 are eligible to study diploma courses at tertiary institutions.
The pupil who received the award for achieving the highest marks was Lukanyo Vena, the 2018 head boy. He received five distinctions.
Vena said to receive outstanding results requires a lot of hard work by both the pupils and teachers.
“I am happy I obtained the kind of results that I did.
“I am reaping the fruits of my hard work, as well as all the hard work that our teachers put in to make sure we acquire all the knowledge to write the exams and pass,” he said.
“What I can say to the matrics of 2019 is that they should start working from the very beginning and should know that it is going to take some sacrifice as well to achieve the best results.
“It will be difficult to cut down on going out and all those other things, but at the end of the day it will be all worth it,” he said.
Vena will now be studying towards a degree in electrical engineering at the University of Cape Town.
Another pupil who made the school proud was Alizwa Zisile, who aced it with three distinctions.
“It is amazing that 12 years of hard work has finally paid off.
“It makes me really proud and excited,” she said.
“I had to sacrifice a lot, like television and spending time on my phone and with friends, in order to pass my matric year.
“I would like to say to the matrics of this year that sacrifice does pay off and they should always surround themselves with positive people,” she said.
Provincial education spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said: “We commend the sterling work provided by the teachers and the pupils in our schools.
“We hope this year will be the same as the matric class of 2018 made us proud.
“We still have a few challenges that we urge our schools to work on in order to achieve the best results.”..