Of the top 10 schools with a National Senior Certificate (NSC) enrolment of 30 or more candidates that have achieved excellence in academic results in 2021, seven hail from the southern suburbs.
And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Among the names of educational institutions and individual learners recognised for top achievement on Thursday 3 February at the Western Cape 2021 National Senior Certificate Awards, local schools and their matriculants featured again and again.
Herschel Girls School in Claremont claimed the top spot with Rondebosch schools Westerford High and Bishops Diocesan College coming in second and third, respectively. Springfield Convent of the Holy Rosary, located in Wynberg, was fifth followed by Rustenburg Girls’ High School in Rosebank in sixth place. Claremont High School came in at number seven. Rounding off “the magnificent seven” was Rondebosch Boys’ High School which appears ninth in the top 10 list.
Under the category “Excellence for Mathematics and Physical Sciences”, Bishops was awarded for mathematics while Claremont High School got the nod for physical sciences.
This is for obtaining the highest score in the province when combining the percentage of candidates in the cohort taking mathematics and physical sciences, the pass rate for mathematics and physical sciences, the subject average for mathematics and physical sciences and the number of candidates taking mathematics and physical sciences.
In the candidate subject awards category, were recognition is given to learners who receive the highest mark in a subject, Stefanos Panagiotidis of Rondebosch Boys’ High School was acknowledged for his achievement in physical sciences and mathematics. Ziyaad Banderker, also from Rondebosch Boys High School received an award for mathematics – he was also named the Top Maths Learner in the country for 2021.
Another mathematics award went to Jessica Prevost of Herschel Girls School while Jana Grobbelaar of Parklands College received an award for accounting.
In the category “Excellent achievement across the province, Gus Farara of Bishops shared the top third position with Jana de Waal of Hoërskool Dirkie Uys (Mooreesburg) and Ahyoung Moon of Rhenish Girls’ High School (Stellenbosch). The second spot went to Simone Wessels from Hoërskool Stellenberg while Ulrich le Roux of Paarl Boys High School was the top candidate “from public ordinary schools”. Jana Grobbelaar of Parklands College was named the top candidate from independent schools.
Addressing the top achievers at the awards event held at Leeuwenhof last week, the Western Cape Minister of Education, Debbie Schäfer, called the class of 2021 their superstars. She admitted that she had been worried about this year’s matric results. She said she wasn’t 100% sure which way it would go.
“On the one hand, our class of 2021 was in Grade 11 during the highly disrupted 2020 school year – and their grade that was one of the last to return to class. We knew that they had missed a lot of class time that year, and had to catch up so much work.”
She said on the other, with the mid-year exams cancelled, the class of 2021 had a very stable matric year, with more days in class than other years have had.
“I also know that our schools, districts and head office did phenomenal work in holding afternoon and weekend classes, providing revision materials, online tutoring, and the like. I thank you for these efforts, which really paid off,” said Schäfer.
The headmaster of Rondebosch Boys’ High School, Shaun Simpson, agrees that the past two years have been tough on the class of 2021.
“All schools have seen the toll that Covid-19 has taken on families and learners. Boys’ schools in particular, thrive on sporting and other activities to supplement the classroom and give vent to some excess energy.”
Simpson says the frustration and often despair that no activity brought was very evident.
“These boys have displayed such resilience in the face of many disappointments and as a group rose to the challenge with good humour,” he says.
