Academic Achievers rewards Mbabane JC top performers
MBABANE – Junior Certificate (JC) top performers have been awarded certificates of recognition for their academic excellence. The pupils are 10 schools around Mbabane.
They were rewarded for their excellent performance during the 2023 JC examinations by Academic Achievers during an event held at St Mark’s High School yesterday.
The 10 schools included, KaBoyce High School, Mbabane Central High School, St Francis High School, St Mark’s High School, Mater Dolorosa (MDS) High School, Saim Christian High School, Herman Gmeiner (SOS) High School, Ka-Schiele High School, John Wesley Secondary School and Woodlands High School.
ENCOURAGED THE PUPILS
Among the guest speakers was Psychologist, Lombuso Thethwa and Speech Therapist, Delisa Mhlanga who congratulated and encouraged the pupils to work hard in order to continue shining in their academic work.
Academic Achievers, Programme Coordinator, Zwakele Mkhonta said the organisation was birthed for the sole purpose of awarding and recognising academic excellence. He said the organisation was a registered NGO and its mandate was to encourage learners from Form I all the way to tertiary level.
He said they started the Academic Achievers Awards in 2016 and were forced to stop due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said now that the pandemic had subsided, they decided to continue with the awards to encourage learners. Adding, he said they have hosted the awards in different venues and this year they decided to host the awards at St Mark’s High School. The first awards were hosted at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) Emporium, he said.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Continuing, he said the main aim of the awards was to encourage and celebrate academic excellence. Mkhonta added that the awards were sponsored by the corporate community, as well as individuals who made contributions.
He said at tertiary level, they offer internship opportunities to students so that they could be fully capacitated and prepared for the corporate world once they had graduated.
The programme coordinator said they were presenting the certificates to top performers from schools around Mbabane. He, however, revealed that the project plan for the next five years was to have the awards for all the top performers in the country.
Psychologists Lombuso Mthethwa, said it was important for the learners to be proud of their work. She urged them to continue working hard at school so that they could be better positioned in future to compete in the job market and entrepreneurship space.
“Being here today is proof that you can do it, it is important to believe in yourself and perservere in life. Know that you will be the first of your kind and be prepared to tackle life challenges as you will be tested along the way,” she said.
She encouraged the pupils to set personal goals in life and continue to pursue them.
Meanwhile, Speech Therapist Delisa Mhlanga also congratulated the learners on their achievement in the 2023 JC examinations. She also advised the learners to pursue different careers in life. She revealed that there were only five speech therapists in the country.
“You should continue to work hard and if you happen to choose to pursue a career in speech therapy, know that you will be the sixth person in the country to do so,” she said.
Also present during the awards were some of the sponsors that included Eswatini Mobile and Instacash.