Johannesburg - It takes a village to raise a child and a Fourways matriculant has thanked her village for supporting her during her final and most difficult year in high school.
Phiwase Khoza from Fourways High School told The Star she was grateful to her village of supporters.
The Morningside teen who who got three distinctions in Life Science, IT and Life Orientation, specially thanked her mother and father.
“They made sure that I had all the resources I needed. They gave me a laptop and allowed me to do work and do past papers. Sometimes, I would spend the whole of Saturday and Sunday doing past papers and some parents would say go outside but they understood that I had my own study methods.”
Khoza said her parents’ confidence in her inspired her during the final exams. She said she was also grateful for her aunts and uncles who assisted her with school assignments and checked up on her during her turbulent matric year.
“It takes a village to raise a child and I certainly had a village to support and help me through this challenging year and my whole schooling career.”
The matriculant said switching from face-to-face to online learning was a challenge because she wasn’t accustomed to learning like that.
“This changed a lot for me and it resulted in me needing to spend a lot of time after school making sure that I understand concepts and making sure that my work was up to date and that I’m properly prepared for the exams.”
Khoza said a normal school day started at 7am and ended at 3pm, but hers ended up being 7am to 10pm.
“After online lessons, I would have to go back to videos and all the presentations that my teachers made so that I understand everything.”
She said online learning required her to find inner motivation to push herself.
“If I succeed this year then I’m set for the rest of my life and I would have made everyone that has helped me in the last 12 years of my schooling proud.”
Khoza said there were many “last time in matric” moments she unfortunately wasn’t able to participate in last year, including playing netball.
“Quite a lot of matric rites of passage were lost, which was disappointing, but at the same time the cancellation of sports allowed me to have more time to spend with doing work and preparing for exams. In a way it helped me.”
She hopes to study medicine at either Wits University or the University of Cape Town this year.
@Chulu_M
The Star