Bongane Motaung
Asande Sibisi, is a visually impaired learner from Nquthu, scored four distinctions in his matric exams. This 18-year-old living with myopia finds it hard to see small objects from afar and to read normal textbooks, for him, everything needs to be enlarged.
Sibisi was one of 16 learners who wrote the 2023 National Senior Certificate exams at the Open Air Special Needs School in Durban. Seven of them required laptops with specific software to cater to their needs – this included a blind learner, a learner who suffered a stroke, a learner living with diabetes, a learner with sacral agenesis, and others with cerebral palsy and living with albinism.
The school received 94% pass rate. Eight learners got Bachelor passes, and seven learners received Diploma passes.
“Last year’s Matrics started off the year nervous and unprepared for the magnitude of Grade 12. However, they quickly adapted and have done very well,” says Omica Bodh, the Departmental Head of the FET phase (Grades 10, 11, 12) at the school.
In celebration of International Day of Education on January 24, Sibisi wanted to thank his teachers, the school, tech hardware sponsors like BET Software, and his mother.
“I hail from eNquthu and was raised by a single parent. My father passed away when I was five years old, and my mother is not working. My family was very supportive throughout Matric, they were my pillar of strength in terms of the obstacles I came face-to-face with,” Sibisi says.
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