As I was thinking about my first topic for this year, I heard the debate on the radio. People were calling to say that it is not right to have a special ceremony celebrating matriculants who excelled and passed with distinctions. I’m afraid I disagree with this notion because every time I heard this year’s learners who obtained nine or ten distinctions being interviewed, they all echoed the same sentiments that it took a lot of dedication and perseverance to achieve their results.
There is no dedication and perseverance without sacrifice. To achieve such results, it means that these learners had to sacrifice having fun at times with their friends so that they could focus on their studies. They had a plan in mind and decided on the best route to achieve that. Some callers said that it is unfair to the learners who didn’t do well to recognise those who excelled. I think it is unjust to punish those who worked hard by not recognising and awarding them because, frankly, they deserve to be celebrated.
I agree with the caller that said that these exceptional learners should instead be used as role models to those who either have not done that well or those that didn’t pass at all. When I was in high school, I heard of stories of children who grew up in shacks and studied using candles, but despite those circumstances, they managed to get distinctions. Their situations and achievements motivated me to do better, and I wanted to be like them. Granted, not everyone is an A or B aggregate learner, but It doesn’t mean that we can’t all work harder to get better results. I think not recognising the ones that worked hard and sacrificed is an injustice to the learners who deserve all the glory.
The recognition should be extended to their teachers and parents because it takes a supportive environment to produce learners that have excelled as much these kids have. So, kudos to the people that made up the support structures around these learners – I salute everyone who played a part in their success. Let’s also be honest, though; we were all young and went to high school – we know learners in our classes that were happy to get the pass mark. Some, if not many, had the potential to excel but were unwilling to put in the extra effort and were just happy to do the bare minimum and be average.
Some of these were socialites in our communities; they enjoyed having fun and being with the popular kids at every neighbourhood party. In contrast, the focused ones were considered weird, and they didn’t fit in with others because they chose to stay at home and focus on their studies instead. By the time we were in grade 10, most of us knew that to get into engineering or the medical field, one needed to excel in Maths and Science. Because of this, the learners that decided to pursue these careers knew by then that they needed to put in the extra hours to get the university entrance marks required for these fields of study. Some learners who don’t come from well-off families knew that to study these fields at university; they needed to get financial assistance such as bursaries.
I firmly believe that it’s a good day when a learner who studied using a candle excels and gets a bursary from an organisation that needs engineers. In most cases, the bursary goes with a surety that should they continue to excel at varsity; they will be employment opportunities waiting for them as soon as they finish their studies. This means that when this student excels, they will be able to break the circle of poverty in their family. I don’t know if it’s just me, but this sounds like something to be celebrated not just for their families but for our country as well. This essentially means that we are grooming the next generation of great leaders and producing a labour force with the expertise that is needed by our economy.
Miranda Lusiba is the Founding Director of Strangé Consulting – a boutique PR Agency specialising in Communication, Freelance Writing: Content Development and Storytelling, Media Relations, Reputation Management and Media Training.
