The Free State premier, Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae, was woken up to the reality of severe child poverty during her special visit to the Grassland Secondary School in Bloemfontein.
She visited the school to encourage its Gr. 12 learners, who began writing their final examination papers on Monday, 21 October.
While confirming the provincial government’s commitment in ensuring the 2024 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations will run smoothly, Letsoha-Mathae was struck by the plight of learners trapped in poverty and their struggle to make ends meet.
She has committed to lending a helping hand to at least five learners identified as being in dire straits.
“The learners’ situations differ. Some of them and their parents could not afford to pay the amount of money required for the matric exam camp, because they are unemployed; others entirely depend on their grandparents’ social grant for survival,” said Letsoha-Mathae.
“One learner shared her grave concern that their situation at home would worsen should their grandmother die, since they are entirely dependent on her social grant.
“My decision to immediately intervene is aimed at alleviating the burdens thrust upon them, and ensure they focus on writing their examinations and succeed. My intervention involves helping to provide food and other essentials,” said Letsoha-Mathae.
She said with proper analysis, there could be more learners faced with a similar situation.
Encouraging candidates to entirely focus on the exam, Letsoha-Mathae said they should let nothing hinder them in pursuing their dream.
The Grassland Secondary School has 265 matric learners writing the NSC examinations, and this is the second cohort since the school’s establishment. The first cohort of 232 attained an 82,3% pass rate in 2023.
This year, the Free State has 44 545 candidates combined (37 583 full-time and 6 962 part-time) writing the examination.
Letsoha-Mathae has expressed confidence that the province will achieve its target of a 90% pass rate, and a 50% bachelor-level pass rate this year.
Last year, the province retained its top position nationally with a pass rate of 89,03%.
The national matric pass rate increased with 2,8% from the 80,1% pass rate in 2022.
