Amid the Groot Brag by schools nation-wide, trumpeting their 2025 successful matric results, spare a thought for the Naledi Ya Meso Secondary School in Limpopo with a 100% failure rate.
Among the reasons given for not even one of the class of 15 passing was their fear of being bewitched. Apparently witches impose the most frightful spells on pupils who shine. The African equivalent of the Australian tall poppy syndrome, maybe.
My father used to threaten my brother and me, albeit with a twinkle in his eye: “If you don’t do well I’ll give you a damn good hiding.” He never laid a finger on us, ever. But what if I had replied: “I would have done well, Dad, but you wouldn’t want me bewitched, would you?”
The nearest one boy in my class got to total failure was minus 3% for his Latin paper, which contained not a single correct answer and had the 3% de-ducted for not writing on alternate lines.
Another reason for Naledi Ya Meso’s in-ability to pass exams was the tendency of the headmistress to fall down in class with epileptic fits and wake up later in her office. It could be off-putting to any pupil, even those not wary of witches. It certainly explained her frequent absences from the class she taught.
We also had a master renowned for his absences, but never because of a seizure. When we sent out for him he was nearly always supervising the weeding of the school cricket pitch. He asked me for my notes at the end of the year, and three years later handed out cop-ies to my younger brother and his classmates, giving him even more time to keep the cricket pitch weed-free.
Yet another obstacle facing the failed 15 was the sudden introduction of mathematics and physical science in place of commercial subjects. And here they have my total sympathy. After a full four years of maths, I barely scraped through, though it was taught by the headmaster who never fell down in class (rumours circulated that he sometimes fell down out of it), and was never seen giving undue attention to the cricket pitch.
Finally the Limpopo school was always the scene of fighting, according to Marungwane Makhobotloane, education department circuit manager – “fighting each other and fighting the teachers”, she said.
It was a problem we never had, except when a ringleader in 10c of our final year frogmarched the Afrikaans master out of the class and locked the door.
The culprit was expelled and the whole class were denied the swot leave the rest of us were given. Maybe someone at Naledi Ya Meso also needed to be expelled.
But if it’s any consolation they should take heart from Adriaan Steyn, a doctoral expert on matric exams. He says South Africa’s are a 19th century relic that should be urgently reformed.
Just a little late for that class of 2025.•
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