Top matriculants' breakfast with the minister

Two top matric achievers have proved that it takes a village to raise a child, crediting their families, classmates, schools and communities with their success.

Siphokazi Hlalukana, 17, and Anastacia Mkhondo, 18, are in Johannesburg to meet Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga at a breakfast today, ahead of her matric results announcement.

Hlalukana from Ncise in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, said she was nervous about the "the lights, the cameras and the interviews" but was excited about her results.

Looking back at her matric year, the teen said: "It was very tiring. We had to work hard. We had to sacrifice a lot of things. We had to focus on reaching our goals. You also had to be persistent. It is about being able to say no to things you like and things you want to do because you need to put your studies first."

Speaking of her support system, she identified her school and her mother as key role-players.

"My school was focused on helping us to succeed. It had winter classes, spring classes, afternoon classes, night classes and Saturday classes."

Holy Cross High School arranged transport for Hlalukana and her peers to attend their evening and weekend lessons.

Hlalukana, who will study applied maths at the University of Pretoria, thanked her mother: "She has been there for me, supported me and motivated me. She made sure I was the best I could be."

Mkhondo, from Taung Village, outside Burgersfort in Limpopo, said she could not have achieved her top marks on her own.

"It was difficult. It's due to organisations and people that I'm here today.

"I'm grateful for their help."

The teen from Mmiditsi Senior Secondary School said the Mining Qualifications Authority provided her with maths and science lessons and free food.

She thanked the Transnet Teenage Health Programme for its intervention: "Members came to my school while I was in Grade 10 in 2014. They gave us dignity packs (sanitary pads) and taught us how to be better versions of ourselves. They taught us about confidence."

There were some bumps along Mkhondo's journey to success last year: "The most difficult thing was losing our maths teacher in June. He resigned and we were without a maths teacher for a couple of months."

Mkhondo got a new maths teacher in time for her final exams and will use her excellent marks to study towards a BSc degree in computer science at the University of Cape Town or the University of the Wits University.

Top-achieving pupils spent two hours rehearsing yesterday for Motshekga's ministerial announcement this evening, which will be broadcast live at 6pm.

MATHS LITERACY A MAJOR PROBLEM

Teacher union Naptosa has predicted that the percentage of matriculants who pass will be higher than in 2015, but said that the increase in pupils failing maths literacy was a problem.

"We predict a slight increase in pass mark results, but Naptosa still believes the quality of passes is what really matters," director Basil Manuel said.

He said that seven years ago about 70% of those who wrote maths literacy passed, but that dropped to 35% in 2016.

"It is a worrisome decline," he said. - Katharine Child, Roxanne Henderson