Durban - Thea’s Earnest’s National Senior Certificate 2020 matric exam results topped a very successful five years of her high school career.
The 18-year-old Mountview Secondary School pupil bagged five distinctions in English Home Language, Afrikaans First Additional Language, Geography, Life Sciences and Life Orientation.
Thea recently returned from a trip to Antarctica and has featured in the Daily News High Schools Quiz twice and was also interviewed when her debate team won the inaugural Nelson Mandela Debate Challenge back in 2018.
She was expecting the worst and thinking about all the possible outcomes especially since she was working towards seven distinctions, but her parents, Nisha and Jay, had told her she should be happy with the results she gets.
Thea said she coped fairly well with the year because she had a good support system at home, her parents and sister Talia, who were motivating her.
Her religion played a huge role and as a Christian, she prayed about it and trusted God.
“For the first three months of lockdown, we received work material over WhatsApp to make up for lost time. We did not have online classes.”
She said on top of that, everyone was dealing with structural and personal issues due to the pandemic. “It was a climate of loss and there was a lack of meeting the needs of matric pupils. My school could only do what they could. I come from a middle class family and I have access to a laptop and WiFi but I could not access any online platforms.”
Thea said 2020 revealed inequalities in education where some pupils had to fight in order to access education and some had to run around cramming before exams.
“I’ve been stressed and I feel that my matric results should reflect my 12 years of schooling and 2020,” said Thea.
She said wanted to study Geospatial Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand.
Thea had gone to Antarctica last month with four other matric pupils, along with explorer Riaan Manser and a team of professors from Stellenbosch University, after winning the Matrics in Antarctica competition.
She said she learnt a great deal and everything about the continent was completely unexpected.
The Daily News