The pressure families put on passing matric

It’s not all doom and gloom if your matric results didn’t come back the way you had hoped.

Educational psychologist Dr Simangele Mayisela has encouraged learners who didn’t achieve their desired outcome in their 2021 National Senior Certificate Examination to stay optimistic With many different pressures and stresses facing the Matric Class of 2021, it is understandable that they didn’t get the marks they were hoping for.

Dr Mayisela explained, “It may sound cliché, that I would say be positive and courageous, success is on its way coming from another path, but you get on the way to meet it.

She asked learners and families to take a step back and ask themselves what is the need to pass matric all about.

“Passing [matric] is a long standing rite of passage for a young person toward independence, and there is an innate volition to be independent. Since the matriculant does not exist in space, but in a context constituted by family and school, peers and the community with members who have been through matric. Thus this journey toward that independence is not just an individual process, but shared by all.”

She added that getting through matric has generally been framed with reference to a particular age, which may have certain social implications should it not be achieved within the first 12 years of schooling. The financial conditions at home might also be a pushing factor for a learner to pass matric.

According to Dr Mayisela, some families might be desperately awaiting this first generation matric to make it for the family to be rescued from poverty. “Given all of the above-stated conditions, not passing matric will come at a big price emotionally, mentally and even physiologically, not to mention spiritually, especially if the matric believes they have fully applied themselves during the exams.”