North Coast’s matric masterminds

Stanger Manor Secondary principal, Mervin Gounden, was probably one of the proudest principals on the North Coast.

“I congratulate the outstanding achievements of Sarena Naidoo, Tenielle Pillay, Saireesha Moodley and Payal Ramraj, who took the top four positions in this order in Ilembe,” he said.

“We had a 82,25% pass rate, which is higher than last year’s 81,49%. I attribute this tremendous success to the dedication of the pupils, teachers and the parents involved.”

All four girls were invited to the ICC awards ceremony, but Tenielle was particularly thrilled about the invitation.

“I have heard of people going there and receiving an award, but I never thought that I would also have the honour to be part of such a grand event,” she said

All four girls would like to study medicine this year and wait to hear if they have been accepted.

Further down the coast, Crawford College North Coast cheered and celebrated their 116 matrics, as they attained 303 distinctions in total, averaging 2,6 A’s per pupil.

The Salt Rock resident, Maya Pillay who was home schooled up to the end of grade 10 and then decided to join Crawford in grade 11, was the star pupil and achieved the best overall result with an aggregate of 94,85% and eight distinctions. She was placed third in the prestigious list of top independent schools’ achievers in KZN.

This humble bright spark has often made the news with her results and was in the Courier two years ago, when she was awarded the Outstanding Cambridge Learner award for achieving the highest mark in South Africa for International General Certificate of Secondary Education and got the highest physics mark in the world (‘Conquering the world from home’, Courier, August 16, 2013).

She will go on to study medicine at UCT this year and is excited to be able to save lives one day and wants to help disadvantaged communities through charity work.

Following close behind Maya, was Nikaila Naidoo, who was placed second with 91,69% followed by Matthew Van Den Berg with 91,23%.

Overall the 116 CNC students attained 303 distinctions, with an average of 2,6 A’s per candidate.

Moving inland, Sphesande Ngxuma was the top student at Qoqulwazi Secondary in Tongaat with five distinctions.

He has been accepted to study medicine at UKZN, but he is hoping to get a bursary or a sponsor, as he cannot afford to study.

Ballito local, Danèl Kolver, made sure her name would be remembered at Durban North College and made Dux with six distinctions and was named sportswoman of the year.

Looking at these results, it is clear that despite the negative matric news swirling over KZN, the North Coast matrics have done their best to make us proud.