Page 17 - Interface August Issue 2026

Sleep, food, movement, laughter and conversations A disappointing result may change the next step. It may
unrelated to school are part of the conditions that require a new application, another route into study, a
make sustained learning possible. They also remind different qualification or more time to work out what
a teenager that they still belong to a family and a life comes next. Those changes can be difficult and deeply
beyond the examination timetable. disappointing, but they are still changes of route rather than
proof that a life has failed.
Parents often ask what else they should be doing
during the final stretch, but in many homes the Most adults cannot remember the exact marks they received
more useful change is to reduce the constant for every Matric subject, but many can remember exactly
monitoring. A teenager should not have to provide how the year felt. They remember whether home was tense,
a progress report every time they enter the kitchen, whether every conversation became an interrogation,
and encouragement does not always need to sound whether they felt trusted and whether they believed the
like another reminder to study. Silence should not adults around them would still see the same person when
automatically be treated as evidence that everything the results arrived.
is under control, either.
Our responsibility is to help young people prepare properly
Ask how they are coping and give them enough time without making them carry our fear of the future. They need
to answer properly. Notice changes in sleep, appetite, to know that effort is expected, that their wellbeing will be
mood or behaviour, listen before trying to solve the taken as seriously as their marks and that support will remain
problem and keep some ordinary family routines available when the year does not go according to plan.
intact. They should be able to take a break without
having to defend it. Matric can influence what happens next, but it cannot
measure the whole person taking it.
When worry, panic, withdrawal or low mood persists,
early support from a teacher, school counsellor or
mental-health professional is far more useful than
waiting for the pressure to become unmanageable.

Young people also need honesty. Telling them that
marks do not matter at all will not feel credible when
applications and entry requirements are very real.
The healthier message is that their results have
consequences, but those consequences are not the
same as a final judgement on their ability or future.

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