Page 16 - Interface August Issue 2026

THE WEIGHT

WE GIVE

TO MATRIC

hen a child reaches Matric, the whole The pressure seldom arrives through one dramatic
household can begin living by one school conversation, but tends to gather through ordinary
Wcalendar. Holidays are shortened or questions. What did you get? Where are you applying?
cancelled, weekends become study time and family How much have you studied? Did you hear what someone
plans are arranged around prelims, applications and else achieved?
final examinations. Even ordinary conversations seem
to make their way back to marks, deadlines or what These questions may come from interest, concern or
comes next. genuine excitement, but teenagers hear more than the
words themselves. They notice the anxiety underneath
Parents are trying to help, while teenagers are trying to them and recognise when their parents are comparing,
hold it together, and by the middle of the year neither worrying or silently calculating what each mark may mean.
side is particularly convincing. As the year progresses, many Matrics are carrying their
own ambitions alongside the hopes and fears of everyone
Matric deserves to be taken seriously. It requires around them.
commitment, consistent work and a willingness to keep
going through a long and demanding year. Results can Pertunia Nkomo-Mofokeng, Deputy Dean of Teaching and
influence university admission and some of the options Learning at Rosebank International, argues that academic
available immediately after school, but the problem commitment and wellbeing cannot be separated. Chronic
begins when we ask the year to mean more than that. stress affects concentration, memory and problem-solving,
while exhausted learners often spend longer at their desks
A school-leaving qualification becomes a measure of and retain less of what they study.
intelligence, potential and future success. A percentage
starts to feel like a judgement on seventeen or eighteen This is where families can lose perspective. Sleep is cut
years of growing, learning and becoming. Young people to make room for revision, movement disappears from
begin to believe that one examination period will the day, meals become hurried and time away from
confirm whether they are capable, whether their parents schoolwork begins to look irresponsible. Every hour must
are proud of them and whether their lives are moving in apparently prove that the learner is trying hard enough,
the right direction. That is an enormous load to place on even though a tired and frightened brain does not learn
somebody who is still working out who they are. better simply because it has been denied a break.

INTERFACEDigimag | AUGUST 2026 | 14