When she first started teaching at Tshebedisano Secondary school in 2019, Nomathamsanqa Tyatya (28) who teaches Agricultural science,  the first few months were slightly challenging as the students had trouble understanding her and once the Covid19 pandemic struck, things became more challenging.

The previous Agricultural science teacher had set a standard of excellent results year in and year out. Once the results started to drop with a ‘new’ teacher, the principal was deeply concerned.

“ When the first term results came out last year , there was a significant drop in the results and I was called in for a meeting by the school principal as he was concerned and eager to find out what the issue was, ”  Nomathamsanqa said.

“Students then mentioned that I wasn’t audible in class and that I tend to make use of words they have trouble understanding,” she added.

And then Covid19 hit. Students and teachers were not allowed to be in contact and classes were moved online–with immediate effect.

“I spent my time during lockdown researching new and interesting methods that could help learners adjust to the new normal”  Nomathamsanqa said.

She decided to create a Whatsapp group that helped her stay in touch with learners at all times and she even went the extra mile to motivate students by running competitions in the group.

“ I would post class activities in the group each and every day and because I know they love data, I would run competitions- whoever performed the best, won the data.”

“ I was part of the WhatsApp groups that were created by teachers, I was reprimanded where necessary and continuously encouraged both learners and teachers.” the school principal Mr Geneke added.

After lockdown matriculants  thought that the academic year would be cancelled but not on Nomathamsanqa’s watch.

“ Before every lesson, I would take about 5 mins just to encourage them not to give up, she said.

For learners who had a harder time adjusting to the new normal she  took it upon herself to reach out and assist in a way that was not overwhelming for them.

“Whenever I saw that a learner was struggling, I set aside time to find out what the issue was and I made sure that we dealt with the work at their own pace.” she shared.

Nomathamsanqa’s resilience has since earned her a top spot in the district as her students scored the highest in the North West province for this year’s matric results.