- A local foundation is appealing to society and the government to put extra focus on young boys so they can boost their academic performance.
- Rev MS Lugongolo Foundation expressed a concern about the declining number of boys who completed their matric in the Philippi area annually.
- The foundation appealed for an urgent intervention in a quest to turn the tide before it was too late.
A local foundation is appealing to society and the government to put extra focus on young boys so they can boost their academic performance.
This is in response to a dwindling pass rate among boys writing their matric examinations.
Announcing the matric results for the class of 2023 on Thursday 18 January, Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga commented that the number of boys who passed the matric was lower than that of girls. She stated 56,4% of the total number of candidates who wrote the 2023 National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams were girls, while 43,6% were boys.
She said more interestingly, 82,9% of both girls and boys passed the exams. “Forty-two percent of the girls and 39,6% of the boys who wrote the 2023 NSC exams attained Bachelor’s passes, while 26,1% of the girls and 28,6% of the boys attained Diploma passes. In all, 14,8% of girls and 14,6% of boys attained Higher Certificate passes. Also, 66,4% of distinctions were attained by female candidates.”
Mawande Lugongolo, founder of the Rev MS Lugongolo Foundation, expressed a concern about the declining number of boys who completed their matric in the Philippi area annually. He appealed for an urgent intervention in a quest to turn the tide before it was too late.
Lugongolo said he felt there was not sufficient support granted to young boys. He said the focus was more on young girls than their counterparts.
“There’s little that is done for young boys,” he said. “We need to pay more attention to the boys now. There are few of them reaching matric level compared to the girls. Also, the majority of boys don’t repeat matric when they fail, preferring to look for odd jobs, while others join gangs because of peer pressure. Almost all the projects run by organisations target the girl child.”
Lugongolo appealed to other non-governmental organisations not to forget young men.
“We’ve seen people donate sanitary towels, yet nothing is said about boys’ needs,” he said. “It is high time we changed the narrative people have about young men and start targeting them now. Let’s start talking to them now and build them up for a better future.”
Young men, Lugongolo emphasised, have nowhere to go.
He urged organisations to start creating safe spaces for them to express themselves and lambasted society for marginalising the boy child.
“We need to give the young boys a space to express themselves. Let’s allow them to show their emotions. Let’s stop telling them a man doesn’t cry or is not allowed to cry.”