The burden of school excellence
• Private schools put a lot of pressure on their grade 12s to excel, but not everyone can achieve straight As
Every year, we have a two-day break from serious news headlines reporting on subject matter that brings more hopelessness, frustration and sadness to a once hopeful SA.
The days in question are the announcement of the matric results, as every news broadcast celebrates the achievements of certain schools and individuals — lifting the spirit of the country by placing our hopes on these young rising stars.
It’s exciting, indeed. The matric 2023 class was celebrated earlier in 2024, with government schools achieving an 82.9% pass rate for their national senior certificate exams, the highest recorded since 1994, and Independent Examination Board (IEB) schools achieving a 98.46% pass rate in their final exams.
Having been a product of a highly academic private school, I know from personal experience that passing with anything less than a bachelor’s pass is not an option. For me, it wasn’t a question of whether I’d achieve this but more of receiving remarkable results to ensure that I could get into the university of my choice.
But with schools, independent ones especially, having the once-a-year opportunity to boast about their incredible results, with some recording an average of between three and four distinctions per student, it’s no easy task for students get brilliant academic results. It begs the question: is there extra pressure to get distinctions at schools with reputations of being the best in the country? If so, where is the pressure coming from? And perhaps, more importantly, how does this pressure affect students’ self-esteem and mental health?
Jodie*, a 2021 matriculant of Roedean School in Parktown who received five distinctions, says any pressure she felt to succeed academically didn’t come from the school, but rather from herself.
“I felt internal academic pressure and I felt the same amount of internal pressure at St Stithians [College] too.”
Jodie moved from St Stithians to Roedean in grade 9. “I liked that Roedean took academics more seriously. I felt I belonged at Roedean as wanting to learn was valued. So, to me, the focus on academics was a positive.”
However, Jodie says that despite the pressure, she has always struggled with mental illness and this did affect her school career.
“I was mentally ill before Roedean. I was struggling with anxiety and depression at the time. I can’t say Roedean made me worse mentally, I think that would have happened regardless of the school.”
In an interview with the SABC in January, Annabel Roberts, Roedean’s senior school head, said the environment of the school allowed girls to excel. “We look very carefully at the social and emotional growth of our students, so it’s not just our academic results. I firmly believe that happier students achieve better results.”
But what are the implications for the girls who aren’t academic ally strong at a school like Roedean? An important part of childhood growth is the security that children are seen for who they are instead of what they may offer.
Jacqueline Aitchison, the executive head of a small independent school called Education Incorporated, says it’s important to meet children where they’re at instead of pushing them to excel beyond their capabilities.
“We often counsel: ‘Set your mark, you know more than anybody else what you’re capable of.’ You can’t take a child who’s a genuine 50-percenter and have them sit and say, ‘I’m going to get 80%.’ It’s like magic when children set their own goals regarding marks, they do achieve them. But as soon as someone else is dictating what marks they should be getting, forget about it.”
Katleho*, a 2023 matriculant of Roedean, says her selfesteem was affected by going to a high school with so many high-achieving girls. “At my old school, I thought I was special … I was more inclined to leadership positions and I felt like I was such a strong speaker. But then I got to Roedean and everyone was a strong speaker and everyone was special in that sense. So, I felt kind of intimidated and I didn’t feel as special any more.”
Jodie recognises that it’s easy for girls to get lost in the system if they aren’t academically strong and that perhaps her high academic standards were the reason she felt she was a good fit for the school. “I think being academically strong affected my enjoyment of Roedean. For instance, I loved academics and learning new things and being able to discuss those ideas, which Roedean always gave me opportunities to do. I suppose just as I was bad at sports and felt excluded at St Stithians, so too, I assume, could those who struggled academically at Roedean feel excluded.”
Jodie says there are things, such as the prizegiving ceremony, that may have other girls feeling insecure about their academic contribution.
“I remember once at the academic prizegiving some girls felt bad about it because they did not do well academically and were not going to be rewarded. However, while at St Stithians they had a strict no-awards policy in case it made some people feel left out.
“So, I greatly preferred the Roedean award system. I could get my academic work recognised at Roedean and there were other awards ceremonies for things like sports to celebrate my friends’ achievements too.”
Katleho says that beyond the academic pressure, she also feels that there was pressure to be thin at a school like Roedean. “I also just felt like everyone was very skinny,” contributing to an eating disorder that only her mom knew of.
Katleho does recognise that seeing the school psychologist assisted her in dealing with her struggles and helped her receive external intervention for her problems by getting her admitted to the day clinic on Oxford Road in Johannesburg. “She was actually very helpful and she’s the psychologist I still see, to this day. That was the support that I got from Roedean. There weren’t really any supports that would come unless you sought them out.”
Aitchison says children shouldn’t have to deal with the pressure of receiving high marks, but acknowledges that these marks are important for the school’s reputation if it wishes to attract more admissions.
“Reputationally, matric results are important because if you look at things like the tracking words that the marketing team uses when looking at matric results, often ‘what is your pass rate’ gets searched. Pass rates are a big deal for parents and for a small school like ours ... there’s a lot of pressure to maintain that 100% pass rate.”
Are cottage or home schools a better choice? Yes and no. Skye Badenhorst, who matriculated from a small homeschool in the Vaal, says she wasn’t given any sort of pressure to succeed. “If you don’t show up for class, teachers are still going to teach.” Badenhorst says the lack of care for academics made it difficult to excel in her matric final exams, as teachers often spoon-fed them for an additional fee.
Kirsten, on the other hand, went to a school for troubled teens named Purpose College for two years and ended up being one of the top-seven high-achieving children in the country. The school received a 100% pass rate for its five matric pupils.
Kirsten says she never experienced any pressure from the school to excel.
“I didn’t feel any pressure from Purpose College but more to please my family and [from] being in matric in general ...
“All the pressure was put on us to perform as we didn’t really have lessons.”
Would it be better to go to a school that places no external pressure on pupils to perform exceptionally well or is the pressure ultimately beneficial? Roedean girls are often reminded of the previous year’s matric results when they get to grade 12, whether this inspires or exerts unbearable pressure may come down to each girl.
KIRSTEN WENT TO A SCHOOL FOR TROUBLED TEENS AND ENDED UP BEING ONE OF THE TOP-SEVEN HIGH-ACHIEVING CHILDREN IN SA
KATLEHO SAYS HER SELF-ESTEEM WAS AFFECTED BY GOING TO A HIGH SCHOOL WITH SO MANY HIGH-ACHIEVING GIRLS
● Not their real names.