Meshack Kekana a tutor and mentor
TK Mashaba
The 2020 matric students performed well across the country regardless of the lockdown restrictions that saw the learners attending schools in breaks because of the pandemic. The matric results that were released a month ago revealed that the class of 2020 had a pass rate of 76,2%. Schools in Waterberg (2) was leading in the Limpopo district with 77,5%. Limpopo as a whole achieved 68,2%, a 5,0% decline from 2019.
Meshack Kekana, a tutor and mentor to pupils around Bela Bela High School told Lekunutu News about his concerns when lockdown was enforced in March 2020.
Kekana, a member of #100KidsToVarsity, anticipated that since the schools in the region didn’t have full electronic equipment as their city counterparts’ schools, it was going to be difficult for leaners to do well especially when some or most of the students were expected to study at home.
“The biggest concern was that our pupils had to deal with various other detrimental issues which arose as a result of corona virus,” Kekana said.
Issues such as pupils being hospitalized or quarantined or having family breadwinners affected, not forgetting the psychological effects of having to bury loved ones within consecutive weeks of each other, coupled with the passing of multitudes of educators within a short period of just under a year.
According to Kekana, “the national matric pass rate might have dropped, yes, but our Waterberg 2 region schools excelled in all aspects. This was achieved because of everyone who took part, the support from the municipality, tutoring companies, late studies and various NGO’s”.
