Leading the 2016 matric class at Northern Muslim School

Raeesa Kimmie & Anne Molope

POLOKWANE – Sleepless nights and listening to the advice from his teacher, paid big dividends for Northern Muslim School’s top matriculant, Shuayb Hassim, who reaped the rewards in the form of seven distinctions in his National Senior Certificate examinations.

Shuayb received distinctions for English, Afrikaans, mathematics, life orientation, accounting and life sciences, and he said the cherry on top of his hard work throughout the year was finding his student number in the newspaper on D-day.

“Even though I registered to receive my results via SMS, my friends and I decided to stay up late so we could go into town to the newspaper distributors together.

“We got our results around 01:00 and were ecstatic,” he explains.

He adds that it was both exciting and a bit overwhelming to see his results in the newspaper. Out of all the examinations he wrote, physical sciences was his favourite and easiest.

Shuayb is currently on the waiting list to study medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand where he hopes to one day specialise in surgery and become a heart surgeon.

“I will find out if my application was successful by the end of the week,” he said excitedly.

His message to this year’s Gr 12 learners is simple: “If you plan what you want to do, if you have a goal or a dream, you will decide to work hard and work towards that dream”.

Laying the groundwork to your success by focusing on the work while still in Gr 11, he adds, is important and will make Gr 12 a lot easier given that the work is similar. Paying attention in class, he says, is key.

This matriculant says he has saved a newspaper clipping of his results to always be reminded of his achievement and adds that his parents are exceptionally proud of his results.

“When I received my results, my mother was overjoyed, screaming and taking photos of me. She was really proud.”

editor@nmgroup.co.za