Vanessa Maphaha was heavily pregnant when she wrote matric last year and would at times fall asleep while studying, but thanks to her encouraging mother she passed with two distinctions.
She wrote one of the papers for which she received top marks in hospital after giving birth to a boy.
Maphaha, 17, who went to Dr Sam Motsuenyane Comprehensive School in Mabopane, Tshwane, was excited to share the news that she had achieved a bachelor pass with distinctions in Setswana and Life Orientation.
With the help of teacher Daisy Rakumakoe, she was able to write her exams shortly after giving birth.
Sunday Times Daily reported last year that Rakumakoe convinced Dr Sam Motsuenyane Comprehensive School officials and staff at Odi Hospital in Mabopane to allow Maphaha to write Setswana paper two and her accounting exam from hospital. She returned to school for her other exams.
When the matric results were released on Friday, Maphaha was among thousands of pupils who celebrated passing Grade 12.
I am going to do business management or financial accounting. I applied for both, but I will see which one I qualify for.
— Vanessa Maphaha
“I am happy. At least I tried,” she said from Limpopo, where she and two-month-old Dakalo are with her grandmother.
Studying while pregnant was not easy, said Maphaha. “Yhoo! It was tough because I was falling asleep most of the time and my mother would wake me up to study. When I wanted to study my eyes would just shut. It was hectic.”
Asked how she was coping with motherhood and how her son was, Maphaha said: “He is fine and I am now able to sleep at night. Dakalo is not a troublesome baby.”
She has applied to study at Wits University in Johannesburg.
“I am going to do business management or financial accounting. I applied for both, but I will see which one I qualify for.”
Her mother, Malindi Maphaha, checked for Maphaha’s results early on Friday morning and relayed the exciting news to her daughter.
“I am so excited. She did very well. I was not expecting that she would achieve the great results, especially with the baby.
“She was so stressed. I was so worried, thinking she would not make it, but by the grace of God she did. I am very happy for her.”
Maphaha expressed gratitude to Rakumakoe: “I would like to thank her and may God bless her. May she keep up the good work of helping others.”
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