Pretoria - “find the routine and work from day one right through to the end” were just some of the words of advice given by the principal of Southdowns College in Irene, Centurion, yesterday as she congratulated the Class of 2022 for achieving a 100% pass rate.
Principal Suzan Thobane said the school’s learners had received a 100% pass rate in the IEB results and 97% bachelor’s degree pass, which was an improvement on last year’s results.
Although it wasn’t an easy year as this group had spent two years in Covid-19, they were grateful for the hard work they and the teachers had put in to make t he school proud.
“This next group and even younger grades need to start working on their outcome for matric because you don’t work when you feel like it or when it’s crunch time, but from day one. If you find a balance and perfect it, when the final exams come they won’t come with anxiety and stress.
“Our formula is to have good teachers, share responsibility with the parents, and tackle problems early on.”
It was that spirit and belief in hard work which the school’s top five learners said helped push them to the top.
Joyce Musungaie, 18, managed to reach the top five while at the same time coming to terms with the loss of her father in May last year. “Studying first for prelim exams was difficult because I lost my father, but after the August holidays I focused on getting a new strategy and created a study plan on how I could catch up. “It wasn’t an easy process but I pushed through; I’m happy with what I got.”
Another top performer, Shaunak Mahajan, said his strategy was to constantly push himself to do the work no matter the hours it took to get it right. “I exceeded my own expectations.”
The independent schools, which had their results released yesterday, achieved a matric pass rate of 98.42%, slightly up from the 98.39% achieved by the Class of 2021.
According to the CEO of the Independent Examinations Board, Anne Oberholzer, the learners showed resilience, with many schools reporting multiple distinctions.
Pretoria News