UPDATE: Granny faced with a forced gap year
“There is no money for us to take her to another school..." said Makgopa.
After all the fussing, the reassuring of her family, the endless trips and the semi- excitement of being a step away and literally smelling the new adventure of tertiary life; the journey suddenly ends and the butterflies disappear.
A few weeks ago, LETABA HERALD published a story about a matriculate who had been turned down twice from studying for her dream career. In efforts to follow up on what the next step would be for Granny Maropeng Makgopa (18), we found that there were challenges she was facing in pursuing any form of studying this year.
READ MORE: Local matriculant turned down twice from pursuing her dream career
“I have been contacted by the university about three times already to come back to them so they can tell me, and other learners that are still waiting for a response, what they have decided to do,” said the young matriculate, “but all three times, the answer has never been different.”
“We are told to get there in the morning but we are kept there until as late as 16:00 without them having said anything to us. The first time we went back, they told us that they were still busy processing the applications of learners who applied and have a higher APS than the rest of us,” she added.
Granny says that she has been hopeful about being accepted to study for Teaching at the University of Limpopo, but she is slowly starting to feel like it is something that will not be happening for her this year.
Her grandmother, Dinah Makgopa, says that she would have loved nothing more but to see her granddaughter, who is also the first in their family to have a chance to study at tertiary level, pursue her dreams but that it saddens her to see Granny going through all the ups and downs to have no solid answer in the end.
“She is a very ambitious young girl and it brings joy to my heart that she put everything aside and stayed determined to try her best to make a better life for herself and our family,” said Makgopa.
Granny will have to take a gap year and try to do something else with the time that she now has on her hands.
READ MORE: Taking a gap-year
“There is no money for us to take her to another school. Her mother cannot afford it and neither can I. She will have to try and do something else this year because the university is not giving her a clear answer about whether she will be admitted to study there or not,” continued Makgopa.
Just before going to print, Granny confirmed to the HERALD that she finally got a response from the university, where she was told to check her application status and she found that it has changed to ‘no space’.
She said she was still trying to come to terms with the recent development of having a final answer and would only decide on what to do with her time this year once she wraps her head around things.
