Pretoria - Through rain, sunshine, sickness and the occasional operations, two Pretoria teenagers are proudly waiting on their top scores, resting in the glory of never having missed a single day of school from Grade 0 all the way to matric.
The teenagers from Hoërskool Montana said being instilled with a sense of responsibility from a young age meant that they took pride in what they had set to achieve while attending school.
Nadia Strydom, 18, said while her mother had the reins ensuring she went to school from Grade 1 to Grade 6, she decided it would work in her favour to continue the tradition for the remaining six years of her schooling career.
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“It might not seem like much to others, but I was proud to get the certificate at the end of each year. I made sure that even when I had to have surgery done in my mouth that I tried to go to school, even if for only a little while.
“I think pushing myself to go, even when I wasn’t feeling up to it, built in that attitude for the rest of my life. Everything we have done to get this has a had a huge impact on what we intend doing with the rest of our lives,” she said.
Nadia said that aside from the sense of personal achievement she got from attending school. she had managed to achieve a 90 percent average since she started high school. “I’ve successfully obtained 90 percent in Grades 8, 9, 10 and 11, so getting the same average to finish off my schooling career would be the cherry on top.
Henco Bester had a 100% attendance record at school. Picture: Oupa Mokoena/Pretoria News
Henco Bester, 18, another Pretoria teenager proud not to have missed a day of school from the very beginning, said he noticed that those that missed school had to later struggle catching up with everyone else.
“When you miss a day of school you then end up being responsible for catching up on what you missed out on, so I think that just creates more work for yourself in the end.
“Fortunately, or rather unfortunately for me, I only got sick during the school holidays. But I was thinking of things in the long term that at the end of the day it would look nice on my CV one day when I am looking for a job,” he said.