‘Aaaaaa-mazing’ results from EHS
STAYING true to its award-winning ways when it comes to academics, Empangeni High School (EHS) has produced one of the top three Class of 2023 learners in King Cetshwayo District.
Despite the slight decrease in the pass rate, from 99.2% in 2022 to
97.6% last year, the learners earned a combined 387 distinctions.
Of the 252 pupils who wrote the 2023 National Senior Certificate exams, 193 secured bachelor passes.
Achieving sterling results was EHS 2023 headboy Marnus Combrinck, whose efficient planning and love for learning earned him an impressive 8 distinctions.
He has been awarded a full bursary to the University of Pretoria where he will study towards becoming an actuary.
“It feels amazing. I have been dreaming of getting eight distinctions since I chose my subjects in Grade 10,” he said.
Admitting that the pressure at the start of his Grade 12 year caused him to burn out, he said with the support of his parents and Afrikaans teacher, Mrs van Rooyen, he overcame it.
“I had to re-evaluate my situation and decided to slow down the pace for terms two and three.”
Proving you are the company you keep, Marnus says, “Join clubs with people you want to become.
“I was part of the choir and band because those extramural groups have numerous other strong academics.”
Marnus is the proud founder of Project Eco-Empowerment, a clean-up initiative in Empangeni.
“The project helped me get outside and helped cause a mindset shift. It is great because no one is doing it for attention or recognition.”
Despite his excellent academic achievements, like most teenagers Marnus enjoys watching movies, series, music and playing cricket.
Armed with seven distinctions is Sambulo Zikhali.
This humble soul and God-fearing youngster feels liberated after achieving academic excellence.
“It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Grade 12 was more demanding than other years, but I came up with formulas to help me best prepare myself,” he explained.
One of the significant changes he made to alleviate academic pressure was incorporating learning into his daily life.
“Instead of just sitting and watching YouTube videos, I would take out my maths books and revise while watching something I loved,” he said.
Sambulo has always been academically sound and at the end of Grade 10, he decided to start pushing himself.
“I got A’s, usually around 80%, but
once I started working harder I started achieving over 90%,” he said.
With his faith, mother and great friend group by his side, Sambulo considers himself truly blessed.
At the moment, Sambulo is soaking up every precious moment with his family and friends before leaving to attend the University of Pretoria where he will pursue a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
He would like to leave young academics with this: “Start as early as possible and if you hit the ground running you will have the perfect foundation.
“School is all about building on a foundation, but if you decide to start working hard only in term four, you would have to go right back to trying to learn the work from term one.”
EHS honourable mentions Nandi Makhoba – seven distinctions. Muziwandile Khawula and Nkosingiphile Shelembe – six distinctions.