Durban — Kearsney College student John Eastes has been named the school’s top achiever for the 2022 Independent Examinations Board (IEB), with eight distinctions.
John was also awarded “Outstanding Achievement” for being placed in the top 5% in over six subjects.
The 2022 IEB pass rate was 98.42%, slightly higher than last year’s pass rate of 98.39%. From that, 89.32% of the cohort achieved entry to degree study, compared to 89.2% in 2021.
Approximately 7.52% qualified for entry to diploma study, compared to 7.82% in 2021.
Nearly 1.57% achieved entry for study at the Higher Certificate level, compared to 1.37% in 2021.
Kearsney College was also named the best performing IEB boys school in KwaZulu-Natal for 2022. John was named in the top 5% in six subjects. In his matric year, he received the Dux award as the school’s top achiever. He also received subject prizes for English, Afrikaans, maths, physical science, accounting and information technology.
John intends to study actuarial science at the University of Stellenbosch.
He said he was not stressed about the upcoming results because he had already been accepted into university.
“I must give credit to Kearsney as Covid-19 affected my year in 2020 (Grade 10). Our teachers were quick to adapt to digital technology. The teaching quality was still good as we did not fall behind in our syllabus.”
John said that in Grade 9, they were advised to do job-shadowing to assess various career options and he was told actuarial science would be good for him.
“I shadowed in Johannesburg at PWC. I will be happy to do that for four years in university as it aligns with the subjects I excelled in.”
He had massive praise for his school and said he believed their system is the best in the country – which is why he excelled both academically and on the sports field.
“They gave me good time management skills and even when there was freedom in my senior years, the discipline that was instilled in me remained. The time one puts in must be of substance. It must be filled with high quality and not with regret and wasted.”
John said the teachers stayed on campus and through that, were available for extra lessons even after normal school hours. He said this level of commitment separated them from most day schools.
“I think the Class of 2023 have to know that many matrics have come before them and they must realise how to have fun. When you look back on matric, you should have enjoyable experiences and appreciate them, because time flies.”
In 10 years, John hopes to be a qualified actuary or something in that field. He sees himself being overseas to experience something different.
Kearsney College’s Fynn Pollock and Burton Benjamin both received “Commendable Achievements” for being placed in the top 5% over five subjects.
“While the class of 2022 has seen how previous Grade 12 classes of 2020 and 2021 managed to adapt to a new reality, this was the class that missed out the most in their Grade 10 and Grade 11 years which are fundamentally important to success in their Grade 12 performance. They have had to work hard to maintain their drive and perseverance to succeed and in many respects, dig deep to play catch-up in lost time and experiences,” concluded the CEO of the IEB, Anne Oberholzer.
Last year 2 580 full-time and 945 part-time candidates from 232 exam centres writing in 262 venues across Southern Africa wrote the IEB National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams in October and November last year. This was fewer than the 12 857 full-time candidates and 968 part-time candidates in 2021.
Daily News