Johannesburg - Scores of proud matriculants from the Crawford International College in Lonehill gathered at the school’s premises in celebration of the school’s 100% matric pass rate for 2022.
Speaking to The Star, the school’s principal, Reinhard de Klerk, said only 100 matriculants from the school will sit for the exams in 2023.
He stated that some of the learners had to overcome great obstacles in order to achieve a great feat that has put the school in good stead, with two receiving nine distinctions each.
“We are very proud of these learners, who have to overcome challenges and obstacles to achieve this pass rate. Some of these learners lost their parents due to Covid-19. They unfortunately no longer have that support structure to give them moral support and celebrate their achievements,” he said.
He said some of the learners started the year without being the school’s top achievers and improved their performances along the way.
“There are one or two learners who achieved great marks after having improved their performance toward the end of the year. It was such an incredible thing because they were not on the list of those we had thought would achieve and come up tops,” De Klerk said.
Among the school’s top achievers are Anita Lou and Rhiya Singh, with nine distinctions apiece, and Caitanya Moodley, with eight distinctions.
According to media reports, independent schools have achieved a matric pass rate of 98.42%. Of the pupils who passed, 89.32% received admission to study for a degree. The overall pass rate is slightly higher than the 98.39% achieved by the class of 2021.
Moodley said she will be studying actuarial science at the University of Pretoria.
“Finding a sense of balance between my academics and extracurricular activities took some doing, but I am glad I was able to find such a balance because at some point my self-esteem started to waiver a bit.
“However, I was able to do it through the amount of support from our teachers, and it became easier to focus on school from day one,” she said.
Lou, who will be studying at the New York University Shanghai campus in China, said she wants to study liberal and interactive arts and sciences with a focus on gaming. She said self-knowledge was an important realisation in her last year of high school.
“Throughout the year in matric, I realised that self-knowledge was an important thing to have. Understanding what you are good at and what you are not good at unlocked the doors to self-realisation. For me, the biggest thing that made me stronger was embracing flaws, and the biggest thing is how you react to these flaws, which in turn makes a huge difference,” she said.
Singh, who is good with numbers and also intends to study actuarial science at Wits University, told The Star that she had to make a few sacrifices to stay on top of her school grades. She said these included taking time off from sports and music classes.
“I had to give up soccer, the sport that I was playing, and I had to slow down on my music and other commitments. I think matric is about really digging deep into yourself and finding that inner motivation,” she said.
The Star