‘Plain top academic achievers

A Woodlands High School and a Rocklands matriculant received awards at the provincial national senior certificate awards ceremony.

Princeton High School ranked tenth in the category of most improved public school; and Shannon Rossouw, from Cedar High School of the Arts in Rocklands, received an excellent achievement award coming 29th out of the 40 top pupils at the Western Cape 2022 National Senior Certificate (NSC) Awards ceremony at Leeuwenhof on Thursday February 2.

The school showed an improvement in its pass rate, greatest increase in the percentage of pupils achieving access to Bachelor’s degree studies, improvement and excellence in individual subjects and excellence in academic performance.

Principal Mogamat Iegsaan Isaacs said the award was about “breaking free from the trap of underperforming for the last two years”.

“In terms of motivation - a good result leaves children with a sense of achievement and for those remaining at school a possibility of achieving and the possibility of improving on the class of 2022’s results.

“To the serious learner this is a confidence booster, to the staff it encourages them to do even more as they experience being valued for their contributions,” he told the Plainsman on Monday February 6.

The school made the top 10 list of public schools with 30 or more candidates that have shown the greatest improvement in pass rate over the period 2020 to 2022.

The criteria also include consistency in the number of Grade 12 candidates over the three-year period from 2020 to 2022.

Education MEC David Maynier said the awards showed the incredible achievements of pupils and schools.

He said the Class of 2022 had a tough time over the past few years.

“They missed so much class time during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“And in their matric year had to cope with load-shedding and transport disruption.

“But, at the same time, our candidates, teachers and districts put an incredible amount of effort into preparing for the matric exams,” said Mr Maynier.

Shannon, 18, from Lentegeur, received an award for her excellent achievement across the province, including independent schools.

“I was very surprised. I was just hoping to pass.

“It was very overwhelming for me to be there with all of the other top achievers. It was amazing to see our hard work being appreciated,” she said.

Shannon encouraged the Class of 2023 to stay focussed on the end goal, which is to pass.

“At first my end goal was to matriculate but then I started to realise that I needed more to get into university and I couldn’t afford to attend university with normal scores, not without a scholarship,” she said.

Shannon had spent most of her matric year at Jorvan community outreach programme, in Woodlands, a safe space with support, tutoring, education appliances, like laptops to complete school tasks.

At the moment she volunteers at the centre’s educare and later this month plans to study languages and culture at the University of Cape Town.

Her mom Ronelle said it was tough but her daughter’s academic achievement validated that she had done something right.

“You always want your kids to do better than you. You don’t want them to go through the same struggles. She was focussed and has a great work ethic. She is so loved at the school. I support her, encourage her all of the time, motivate her and she can do anything. I am very very proud of her. She is going to do really great things,” she said.

The top pupils had obtained the best six subjects that fulfilled the requirements for the award of a NSC, including two languages, mathematics and three other subjects excluding life orientation.

The historical context of schools was also taken into consideration.