OPINION PIECE
As we brace ourselves for the announcement of the 2022 matric exam results, Mo Media wishes to send words of gratitude to all candidates who sat for last year’s matric exams. The road to the ¬final exams was not that rosy as learners saw their school calendar year being disrupted due to the lockdown as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic outbreak.
Irrespective of whether one emerged out of the exams successfully or otherwise, the class of 2022 deserve a pat on their back for their bravery amid fears of contracting the deadly virus. To those who did not make it, this is not the end of the world. Dust yourself up and go back to the drawing board where you will be able to identify where your shortcomings were and try to improve on them.
Those who will be doing matric in 2023, you have a mammoth task of having to improve on the performance of last year (2022) candidates. Remember, when you start preparing now, this will augur well for you to be under less pressure come the final exams around October and November.
Those who will be enrolling at various tertiary institutions countrywide, I say go out there and work hard in your efforts to realise what has been your dreams since you started school. It is only a matter of between three and four years that you will be graduating in your various study programmes that will in turn make you the professionals that the country requires of you.
The national education department also need to be lauded in their strive to increase the higher education department’s budget for more students to access tertiary education via bursaries from various departments as well as the NSFAS (National Students Financial Aid Scheme) which has over the years assisted the less affording students to achieve their ambitions, dreams and goals in their various study programmes.
As an individual, I am not a fan of this new trend that “The Born Frees” are now consistently accustomed to, which they refer to it as “The Gap Year”. Be cautious with it as many of them have added more gap years after the initial one.
It is true that some of the youth are forced by circumstances at home to undertake this gap year but please do not allow other influences during this gap year to derail you on your long-term life plans and ambitions.
Remember, everybody is born with a purpose in life. Not all of us will attend university and other tertiary institutions but please try to ¬t in the South African economic model for the betterment of your lives and that of your families. Good luck to all for the 2023 academic year.
- The views expressed above are of the writer who wrote in his personal capacity and do not necessarily represent Mo Media as a publication -
