The writing of final-year school exams not only marks an important event in the school calendar but signifies a moment of achievement and challenge for us a nation.
Once more multitudes of learners have dropped out of school due to a myriad socio-economic problems. Many girls have fallen by the wayside of the school journey because ours is still a society which makes it difficult for women to achieve real educational success.
Most of our Grade 12 learners pass without maths and science which are badly needed in the rapidly changing fourth industrial economic revolution.
Probably the greatest achievement is that Grade 12s have been granted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use a Grade 12 qualification as a ladder to further acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Another meaningful achievement about the writing of Grade 12 exams is the strong emotions evoked in both the learners and the parents who nurtured them to this stage.
Whatever the outcome of the exams, there is something to learn from Winston Churchill when he said: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
We cannot let this opportunity just pass by, as a nation - we are obliged to seize it.
The final year of school brings both sad and good memories for the class of 2018 and many of us who have been fortunate to pass what was then referred to as matric.
In my time, being in Grade 12 was a prestigious position and few townships had a high school which offered education up until matric. Many learners would leave the comfort of their homes to study in boarding schools, mostly in rural homelands of QwaQwa, Natal and Limpopo.
Many schools had and still have rituals done before the first matric exam. The most inspiring ritual at my school was the last school assembly for all matrics.
The principal, who commanded immense respect, would walk to the front of the assembly in a black scholarly gown and read from the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 verse 1-2: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.”
After that we would know that there was no turning back and that the moment of truth had dawned for us and the battle for survival had begun. Few students would pass with the desired matric exemption and head to universities which under apartheid rule were in the so-called homelands.
Those who could not pass matric were given the option of attending “night school”. A lot more people would attend evening secondary education classes.
One other challenge around the writing of matric exams has been the leaking of exam papers before the writing of the exam.
Before the advent of computer technology, some people would generate fake matric certificates and use these to gain entry into the tight job market. We still have individuals who occupy significant positions in both public and private sector on the basis of fake matric qualifications.
The class of 2018 must shy away from anything that would compromise the integrity of their matric qualification. The recent allegations around an educator who compromised a geography paper in Gauteng are a threat to the integrity of our national final school year qualification.
Whatever the outcome of the 2018 national Grade 12 exams, the matric class symbolises a nation waiting to reclaim its place in the international community of nations bound by common values of democracy, opportunity, equality, freedom and diversity.
Faleni is a DA member of the North West Provincial Legislature. He was previously a lecturer in curriculum studies at the Potchefstroom campus of the North West University. He writes in his personal capacity.