A Cannons Creek Independent School pupil who has severe dyslexia and passed matric with six distinctions has been hailed for his determination and hard work.
Kian Frassek, 18, from Plumstead, who was elected a Prefect in his matric year, went from struggling to read and write to being a top achiever at the school.
School principal Mike van Haght recalled how they had to provide a reader for a portion of Frassek’s entrance assessment in 2015.
“We noticed that after two hours he had hardly written anything. When asked what the problem was, he explained that he struggled to read and write due to dyslexia. We provided a reader for the remaining portion of the test. When we marked his work the English section (for which he had no reader) was probably the worst we had yet seen, but those sections for which he had a reader, were among the best we had ever seen.”
“While we were able to provide him with a scribe in exam situations, he had to take responsibility for everything else – classwork, homework, studying, tests and projects. When others worked hard, Kian had to work twice as hard; nothing was easy for him. Nonetheless, he persevered, and while there were definitely times when he felt demoralised, he never gave up,” he said.
Frassek obtained distinctions in Maths (91%), Physical Sciences (87%), Geography (89%), Life Sciences (83%), IT (95%), Life Orientation (91%) and narrowly missed out on a distinction for English – achieving 77%.
Frassek yesterday said he was thrilled with his results and excited for the future.
“I like doing well and I feel very happy. My plans are to study Mechatronics at UCT. Dyslexia makes it hard to read and write and very difficult. But one mustn't get disheartened, you will be able to do well. It's just going to require more work,” he said.
His parents, Tania and Andre Frassek said they were extremely proud of their son.
“He has had struggles with dyslexia which made learning so much more difficult, but Kian worked exceptionally hard and it paid off. We also want to specially thank many special teachers for their magnificent support.”