Matric pupils have their future in their hands

It is an opportunity for them to make decent lives for themselves, writes Tom Mhlanga.

Grade 12 pupils are sitting for their 2019 matric examinations. It has been a long, and traumatic journey for some as 2019 has not been a very good year with the violence in schools happening daily.

Children have been kidnapped, they have stabbed each other to death with the most recent stabbing happening at the Pietermaritzburg High School where two pupils were stabbed to death.

This has created an environment of horror for some pupils and has meant they sometimes lose focus on the main objective of going to school.

This is an opportunity for the matriculants to get themselves out of the life of violence and substance abuse.

It is an opportunity for them to make a decent life for themselves and this journey begins with them doing very well in their exams.

This will hopefully encourage the next generation to do likewise.

You must understand that as South Africa gears itself up for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it will need young people who are innovative, who will seize the moment to confront the future.

It needs young people who understand that they are part of the solutions to the country’s economic woes that are resulting in high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment.

This can’t be done by pupils who carry knives and guns into classrooms, by pupils who take schools as war zones.

To all pupils, good luck to you and remember the future is in your hands and that future begins with you doing very well in your matric.

You have the whole nation behind you so dare not fail.