WESTVILLE Boys’ High School reaffirmed the school’s position as one of the top academic institutions in the country in the 2016 NSC results.
Three learners, Sriram Maharaj, Jeremy Gounden and Thayin Govender were placed 4th, 5th and 8th in the province respectively. WBHS is the only school to boast three learners in the KZN Top 10. The Dux at the sister school, Cornelia Weber, was placed 7th, which provides Westville with 40 per cent of the province’s top achievers.
The Class of 2016 did extremely well to achieve 522 subject distinctions (i.e. 2.3 per learner) and a 91 per cent Bachelor pass rate. Given the size of the group (232 students) it is to their credit that they were able to produce such excellent results. Two learners’ results are incomplete due to injury or illness.
Trevor Hall, headmaster at WBHS said: “We are very pleased that 206 of our learners achieved Bachelors’ passes (i.e. 90 per cent of the group). In assessing the quality of passes, another major factor to take into account is that: 83 per cent of our learners undertook core mathematics, and 77 per cent undertook physical science. In addition, 23 learners undertake advanced programme mathematics.
“This indicates that they undertake challenging courses in order to keep their career options open, which makes their achievements even more impressive. It is WBHS policy not to encourage our learners to choose softer options,” said Hall.
Indicators of the excellent achievement were the high number of distinctions on three of the challenging gateway subjects, which the school believes are the highest among boys’ schools in the country: 58 As in mathematics; 5As in advanced programme mathematics; 48 As in physical science and 62 As in accounting.
Some notable statistics for the group of 230 learners were: 227 passed (99 per cent); 206 learners achieved Bachelor passes; 24 learners achieved a full set of seven distinctions or more; 30 learners achieved six or more distinctions and there was 522 subject distinctions achieved in total.
Sachin Lutchman, Jonathan Major and Reagan Naidoo each achieved nine distinctions. Ahmed Dada, Zayd Mohamed and Ahmed Moosa achieved eight distinctions. Dylan Beavan, Brett Buchanan, Sasasa Dlamini, Dominic Cominato, David Erasmus, Jeremy Gounden, Kiashen Govender, Thayin Govender, Steven Landsberg, Shiv Mahabeer, Sriram Maharaj, Carl Nel, Declan O’Connor, Michael Scott, Jake Stangroom, Matthew Young and Richard Young achieved seven distinctions each.
“I thank all our teachers across all grades for their persistence in motivating the students in their classes. I also appreciate the positive pressure that most parents apply at home in supporting our initiatives – this is extremely vital,” said Hall.
He added that the success the school achieved last year in academics, sport and the arts reinforces its commitment to the holistic approach and their mission of nurturing all-round excellence.
“It is true that the more a boy puts into his school, the more he gets out of it. The learners mentioned above were certainly not one-dimensional academics, and they added value to the school over a number of different areas: in sport, performing arts and service,” said Hall.
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