Kutlwano Matebele, a student at Forte Secondary School in Soweto.
- A Soweto student achieved three matric distinctions despite enduring one of the most difficult years.
- Kutlwano Matebele, a student at Forte Secondary School in Soweto, started new subjects at school, lost her dearest friend and nearly lost her grandmother to a stroke.
- She said that Matric was very challenging but it helped her realize that she was stronger for her fights.
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After changing subjects at the start of enrollment, facing severe academic pressure, losing a dear friend and even having her grandmother suffer a minor stroke, a Soweto student still shined.
Despite these trials and tribulations, Kutlwano Matebele, a student at Forte Secondary School in Soweto, held his ground and now stands as a great achiever.
Matebele earned three honors for her National Higher Certificate (NSC) exam results.
This was a huge accomplishment for her, especially since she started taking new subjects during matriculation and had to catch up throughout the year.
Matebele, who in grades 10 and 11 studied Physical Sciences, Life Sciences and Mathematics, made a life-changing decision in her enrolled year to switch those subjects to History, Geography and Math Literacy.
Despite excelling in Physical Sciences, Matebele said she changed subjects after noticing she was having trouble with math and felt she couldn’t continue.
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“I switched because I wasn’t performing well with him. [initial] subjects… I thought I needed to change because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I wanted to be with my matrix results,” she said.
The last-minute change came as a surprise to her mother, who was concerned about her daughter’s mental health.
“My mom was against it because she felt that I couldn’t do new subjects in Matric, since it would ruin my knowledge and my mental health.
“I told him that I should stay [with her subjects]… it would complicate me even more because I would not reach the marks that I wanted. But along the way, he realized it was a good thing and he supported me,” she said.
Her mother wasn’t the only one against her changing the subject, her teacher also believed that her career options would be limited if she moved away from science.
matebele said:
They told me that I was very good at physics and that science offers many career paths and that doing math was going to limit me, but I was limited when I was doing pure math. After changing, I felt free.
Released from her worries, Matebele said she still needed to work hard and catch up on the things she missed, adding to the already existing workload on tuition.
“Matric was very challenging. I struggled to keep up with all the subjects, especially two of the ones that were new to me.
“There was a point where I felt unmotivated and tired… I felt anxious because I kept wondering if I would be able to do it or not. Eventually, I got over it just by persisting and studying.”
What helped Matebele overcome academic stress was adapting to effective study methods, such as taking notes, reviewing quizzes, and asking her teachers for help when she was having trouble with concepts.
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But just when she thought she was done with all the academic beating, things got even more difficult when her dearest friend died, and then her grandmother suffered a minor stroke during the preliminaries.
Matebele felt extremely discouraged but when she remembered her grandmother’s words: ‘whatever happens, you have to keep going and reach your goals’, she knew she had to keep trying, despite life’s hard knocks.
He managed to make it to the top 10 achievers in his preliminaries.
Looking back on her year, Matebele said she came with many lessons, even in the tough times.
“My enrolled year taught me how to tackle a lot of issues, especially when it comes to mental health. And having to be in the top three in my prelims really showed me how strong I was.”
