12/11/2020
FREE STATE PREMIER ADDRESSES MATRICULANTS!
Free State Premier Sefora Nfombela has said matric learners in the province have a heavy duty to defend the number one position clinched by the province in last year's exams. Ntombela expressed confidence that the matric class of 2020 will live up to the challenge. She noted although the school calendar was characterised by many holidays as a result of the Covid-19, the provincial government still expect the students to farewell. The pandemic must have brought a lot of anxiety to the matrics, adding to the natural stress associated with national exams. "The final exams are naturally stressful but we have complete faith in our learners; we trust them. Officials have worked hard in preparing them", said the Premier. "Despite challenges i have no doubt they will make their parents, the province and themselves proud". Ntombela said the class of 2020 got into the exams as defending title holders for the number one position obtained two years in a row. The ANC Youth League in the Free State has also wished the learners well, citing education is a necessary passport to the future. ANCYL Provincial Secretary Reagan Booysen said the future belongs to those who prepare for it today. Booysen acknowledged the Covid-19 challenges faced by the class of 2020. "Learners were forced to change their normal way of doing things and way of living. Teaching and learning techniques changed and the academic year 2020 generally was a nightmare". He noted teachers and frontline workers in the schooling system deserve to be saluted for continuing to teach the matrics under unfriendly conditions. "Indeed they have proven that hard times don't create heroes, but it is during hard times when a hero within us is revealed", said Booysen. The league prides itself with the commitment shown by the province's matrics during the pandemic, especially those from poor and working class families to whom 'quitting was not an option". The provincial secretary indicated the matric class of 2020 is defined by hard times that they endured, and overcame. "Go into this examination with your head held up high and remember Don't watch the clock but do what it does keep going", he urged. He further called on families and community members to support the matrics as they sit for the all-important final year school exams. Booysen boasted that the class of 2020 would prove once more that Free Staters are simply the best. "We are concident that class of 2020 will make it because hard work and efforts to this mammoth task was felt. It doesnt take a hero to order men to go into battle, it takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle", he pointed out. The Free State scored 88.4% pass rate in 2019, the highest in the country. The national pass rate jumped from 78.2% to 81.3% during the same period. Gauteng followed hotly behind Free State at 87.2%.