This week the majority of 923,460 matrics (part-time and full-time) commenced writing their last school examinations at 6,885 centres around the country. I wish every one of these students the very best in this important exam. Whatever its many shortcomings, the matric matters because it determines not only whether you pass or fail, but whether you pass well enough to continue into further or higher education. Passing well also gives individual students a huge confidence boost as they start their independent lives after school.
It is tough for the Class of 2022. Accumulated learning losses as a result of the pandemic means that this cohort will still experience the effects of that once-in-a-century disruption of education; that sense of learning lost is a global problem as research begins to account for the magnitude of time forfeited in 2020/21. Let’s not be fooled. Despite the valiant efforts of teachers and officials, a streamlined curriculum simply means a lot was left out to allow pupils to cope. The unions are correct — we are in trouble.
Having survived the Covid-19 virus, pupils now have to deal with the unpredictability of electricity supply, for the lights may or may not be on as they try to use every minute to round off preparation for the next exam. This is so unfair. “We are in touch with Eskom,” announced the department of basic education. Well, I’m also in touch with my ancestors and to be honest, I expect more from the dead. One union said load-shedding must be suspended for the duration of the examinations; you have to wonder whether these folk actually know what load-shedding is and how it works.
Then, as if on cue, some schools decided to prevent pregnant pupils from sitting for this important exam. It is one of those knucklehead decisions that I cannot get my head around. To begin with, why? Does a pregnant young woman petrify these educators? Well, the Virgin Mary would probably scare the daylights out of you. Is it the fear that other youths might get the same idea? Well, you need to stop sleeping on the job because that train left the station many grades earlier.
It is, to be blunt, an act of misogyny to target young women even if, by some miracle, they impregnated themselves. It is perfectly possible, with this sort of action, to have a grade 12 boy writing his examination in peace, while his girlfriend or just friend (or worse) is being harassed by the system. Fortunately, there is a government policy that prohibits this sort of prejudice, but still schools act with impunity year after year.
Virus, darkness, pregnancy. What more could go wrong for our beleaguered matrics? Oh, I know, the watered-down examination. Yet again, about half the class who started in grade one did not make it this far. There was a great culling in about grade 10. Those who remained were pressurised to shift from mathematics to mathematical literacy. The pattern is now so well-established and tacitly accepted that I still wonder why there is no revolt against this dilution of academic ambition.
One examination, even a terminal one such as the matric, cannot be the sole measure of your talent as a student or predict your future as a worker. No ways.
What should matrics do? Put everything you have into this examination so that you pass well enough. There is nothing you can do about maths vs maths lit now but whatever you do, pass as well as you can. Until December 7, when the exams end, make these few weeks the single most important priority in your life. An hour or two at a party means an hour or two lost and you can regret that for some years to come. Study hard in between exams. Ask for help if you’re stuck. And get good sleep in-between, so that your concentration does not suffer on the day of writing.
Regardless of the results, always keep perspective. One examination, even a terminal one such as the matric, cannot be the sole measure of your talent as a student or predict your future as a worker. No ways. There are countless stories of students who did not do well in matric and are now highly successful in business, industry, the voluntary sector and yes, academia.
This point is especially important for those who attend poor and working-class schools where you were not taught well enough because of the quality of the teachers or the overcrowded classroom or the lack of solid foundations in the lower grades of schooling. Do not take the fall for what your government did not do to ensure that you had the same opportunities to learn as everyone else. It is not your fault — unless of course it is and you have not applied yourself despite the best efforts of your teachers.
Write well, pupils, and I’ll see you on the other side.
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