ƒ†‡‹… ‡š…‡ŽŽ‡…‡

Sir,

The concept of academic excellence is quite an interesting one. Understanding that had we understood the purpose for the subjects or learning areas we do in the classroom, academic excellence would be something common and normal, something that we could all achieve, and not a mystery. Of course, the extent of our abilities will always vary, but we can all achieve academic excellence only if we understood why the ‘Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Biology’ and all other subjects.

It is sad to find yourself taking the wrong exam, when you are successful in the wrong field. The only trouble is that for the most part, people only find out later on in life that they studied the wrong thing that they are in the wrong job or doing the wrong work. Hence many move from different companies constantly, many change courses, graduate and still feel inadequate, come back for a more prestigious degree, and still are unable to and cannot find fulfillment. The most frustrated are those who even after graduating and achieving what in their own minds is ‘academic excellence’, join the statistics of the unemployed graduates.

Understand

Before you study anything, understand its purpose. It is the only way you can maximise its potential in your own life. It is what you can do with Biology, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences beyond the classroom that proves academic excellence. The reason people move from one company to the other, despite the fact that they felt adequate at first is because they studied subjects without understanding their purpose. There are those who graduate and cannot even use a piece of all the information they received to produce work, it all has its roots from studying the wrong things, irrespective of how prestigious the grades they obtained are, if they cannot help them work independently, they are meaningless. There are graduates who are rated ‘incompetent’ after being employed by certain companies, this is even because they did not understand where the things they were studying would be applicable in life, let alone that they have A’s, that they cannot use those A’s to work, is proof positive that they did not achieve academic excellence.

M C Dlamini