'I never failed matric!'
2006-02-11 10:10
Cape Town - For 11 years Christa Jeftha of Worcester had to live with the knowledge that she failed her matric exams - until last week, when she heard that was not the case.
Jeftha, who wrote her matric exams in 1995 as a pupil at the Esselen Park senior secondary school, was very depressed when she could not find her name in Die Burger of December 29, 1995.
She says she was so ashamed of the fact that she had failed that she did not even check the names displayed at the school.
Jeftha always wanted to become a warder with correctional services but she forgot about this dream as 'a person does not apply for a job without a matric certificate'.
Last week she decided to do something about it and she contacted a centre for adult education, which informed her that she only had to rewrite the failed subjects.
She then phoned the school to find out which subjects she had failed.
The secretary checked the 1995 results and informed Jeftha that she had indeed passed and that she could collect her certificate at the school, which she did then and there.
"I've had it framed and just for the hell of it made a number of copies," a jubilant Jeftha said.
A departmental spokesperson said a newspaper could not be blamed as it was not an official publication and pupils were informed beforehand that they could check the results at the school before they were published in the newspaper.
"Jeftha simply did not do enough to find out the real facts," said education spokesperson Johan van Tonder.