It’s a strange set of affairs where matric results are announced literally the day before the kids go back to school.
Some of us are old enough to remember receiving our results well before Christmas – and ruining the festive season in the process.
From there, it shifted to a time between Christmas and New Year, which enlivened a rather dull news cycle.
Today, the results come out even after the ANC’s annual January 8th statement which used to mark the start of the political year.
The current release timeframe places inordinate stress on everyone, especially the university administrators and their staff trying to sift through and approve provisional acceptances in the few weeks left to them before the tertiary year starts.
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One thing that hasn’t changed in all the years of publishing the matric results is the thrill of reading the incredible stories of resilience and triumph, along with the celebration of excellence.
Everyone has a favourite and mine is the story of Jiawen Huang, the top matric in the Northern Cape who got eight distinctions. I only did six subjects when I was at school – narrowly avoided plugging maths and barely scraping Afrikaans – and yet Jiawen isn’t on the same level as others, who might get 10 or even 12 distinctions because they enrolled for ancillary subjects that their actual schools don’t teach.
What makes Jiawen special is that she’s an immigrant.
She didn’t learn Afrikaans until the age of 10 and yet was the top matric pupil in that subject. She was also the top candidate in maths, physical sciences and life studies. But first she had to learn and master English.
South Africa is built on the backs of immigrants, internal and external. It’s not easy being an immigrant, you sink or swim.
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We are also a country that prides itself on multilingualism in spirit, if not in practice. The truth is if you’re not a first-language English speaker in South Africa, it’s an uphill battle, but it’s just taken for granted.
So well done Jiawen and good luck with the next step, which is medicine at Stellenbosch University.
Congratulations too to Kimberley Girls High School – it’s been a consistent beacon of excellence throughout its 138 year history.
We don’t shout about that enough either – or all the other government schools on the peripheries, doing incredible work.
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