When I was growing up I knew the value of
education. I knew that education was important for my future position in the
labour market. I remember some of the days when my parents did not have money
to pay for my school fees. In those days if you did not pay the school fee you
were not allowed to attend school until the money is paid. My parents were
relatively poor and were struggling to maintain the monthly household
expenditure. My father had attained a standard 6 and my mother had some
secondary education. The levels of education they had acquired channelled them
to work at the lower end of the then South African labour market; hence they
were struggling to afford some basic expenses such as payment of school
fees. I remember that on such occasions
I usually swore that I would report my parents to the police as they were
denying my right to education.
At school I was very competitive and as a
result I always came in the top 5 in my class. I remember then there were exit
examinations at various levels throughout the basic education: at standard 5
(grade7), standard 8 (grade 10) and standard 10 (grade 12). As learners in
those days we were doing our best to achieve and our parents were monitoring us
by looking at our books frequently, though as we progressed to higher grades at
secondary school they did not understand the work we were doing. Unlike today
there was no continuous assessment, our fate was mainly dependent on the final
examination.
