Rama passes JCE with flying colours
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Friday February 12, 2021 16:32
Rama attained merit in the just released. He had sat for his JCE at Nkange Junior Secondary School in Nkange village, a 10 km distance to school on a daily basis . But that did not stop him from excelling in his studies.
The smart teenager became a leading example that having limited family resources due to poor background does not have to determine one’s destiny or be a stumbling block in attaining excellent marks. Mmegi spoke to the top achiever on his brilliant performance after attaining merit with seven As and two Bs bearing in mind all the hardships he underwent during his tenure as a student at Nkange JSS. During the interview, Rama was on cloud nine and expressed his gratitude to God. He said that with all the efforts and discipline he was praying for an A, but was shocked to have attained merit and being listed amongst the cream of JCE nationally.
He added : “When I received my results, I was so happy at first and also a little bit scared of my remarkable performance.” He shared that he has always been a bookworm ever since lower primary and hence he aced his exams from Standard 1 up to Standard 7.
He said that he grew up working very hard at school because he wanted to change the status of his family. He further said that he studied under pressure and had to make use of the little time he had at school for revision purposes because they did not have electricity at home.
He stated that he maximised on getting assistance from his teachers, doing homework and reading at school. He added : “I did not let my background to affect my performance, but worked hard so that I could change it. Sometimes if the situation was not conducive for study at school due to COVID-19, my mother would purchase more candles so that I can study at night.” He also said that he had a rough journey as he encountered more obstacles from corner to corner but had no choice but to soldier on so that he can attain his goals. He added that his school was 10 km away from his home and had to walk from as early at 5:30 am so that he was not late for class.
He said that during the rainy season it became harder to trudgel to school as the streams in between Senete and Nkange villages will be flooding, making walknig across them a treacherous ordeal.
He said in those instances, he would be forced to sometimes remove his school shoes and socks to cross the streams in order to reach school on time.
The high flying Rama also said that sometimes he would skip school if it was raining heavily and the streams would be full to capacity. He further spoke about lack of internet accessibility in their village which made it even harder to research as the school library had limited access due to the COVID-19 health protocols. The intelligent boy stated that COVID-19 was his biggest obstacle as they were not allowed to discuss in groups which made it harder to revise.
He expressed gratitude to their teachers who voluntarily gave them extra lessons and worked together on past revision papers so that they could prepare for the final examination. When speaking about his preparations for the examination, Rama said that he had been prepared for his examination since his first lesson in Form 1. He said that preparing for his JCE at an early stage made it way easier for him to maintain good results during his tenure at Nkange JSS.
He gave thanks to his siblings and mother for always supporting him even though it was a bit challenging. Rama also said that apart from being a bookworm his other hobbies included playing football. He also said that he has always wanted to be a medical doctor from a very young age but later wanted to be a specialist, either a cardiologist or a heart surgeon. Constance’s mother, Tootini Rama was over the moon about his son‘s performance.
She said that they always knew he was destined for greater things and was going to be his knight in shining armour as he swoops down to rescue her family. She described his son as a loving, caring, hardworking and a focused young man with big dreams.
Tootini said that his son is extremely enthusiastic about studying and reading to a point that he frequently tutored his colleagues and other children in the community. She shared that her son has always been an A material student also after attaining overall grade A in the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PLSE). The proud mother said that his son has always assured her that he will always make her proud and would one day make her dreams turn into reality.
She said that it broke her heart to see her son working tirelessly, waking up at around 4 am so that he could walk the 10km trek to school.
She thanked the Nkage JSS teachers for their continued support.