Don’t use the word ‘fail’, says UP professor ahead of matric results

A professor in the department of educational psychology at the University of Pretoria, Kobus Maree, has released a statement urging matriculates not to “give up hope” if they don’t get the necessary marks for university admission, and expressing the view that “the word ‘fail’ has no place in current society”.

Instead, the professor would use the term “insufficient achievement” to be used, considering it more “appropriate”.

The statement says: “Prof Maree, who has doctorates in career counselling, psychology as well as in learning facilitation in mathematics, says while your current marks will co-determine whether you will be accepted into your preferred field of study, they will not determine if you will be successful in life. Nor will they limit your career prospects.

“It hurts when one learns that the outcomes of an examination were less successful than expected. But step back emotionally and interpret the experience logically. All human beings experience success and are less successful from time to time. This is the most normal thing in the world.”

The statement points out that learners who don’t achieve the marks they were hoping for have options. They can “apply for the remarking of their papers, register for and write supplementary exams, or even re-do their grade or repeat certain subjects”.

“However, there is no ‘one size that fits all’. Hard work is needed,” the professor added.

2019’s National Senior Certificate matric results will be available online on The Citizen from 6am tomorrow.

The full statement by Prof Maree can be read here.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.