The unbearable pressure of being in matric

JORDAN MOSHE

The pressure to succeed may be inevitable, but it is taking a toll on the well-being of our youth.

“There are many obstacles and challenges that teenagers are forced to navigate today that children did not face in the past,” says psychologist David Abrahamson. “However, there is no doubt that the pursuit of success is also harming our children.

“School academic pressure has increased considerably over the past few decades, thanks in part to an education system obsessed with a narrow definition of success. With standardised testing, ranking, comparison, and competition, a worrying number of young South Africans suffer from depression and anxiety.”

Abrahamson maintains that South Africa’s education system places too much focus on academic outcomes, espousing a very narrow view of success, and a one-size-fits-all approach that negates individuality. “There is too much testing,” he says, “too much competition, and too much comparison between kids. The education system is geared towards achieving the highest marks possible rather than helping pupils to love learning, think creatively, and develop practical life skills”

Whether a student is a straight-A performer or struggles academically, the consequences of this system are felt by all. Abrahamson believes that this drive to achieve at the end of 12 years of schooling has become something of an obsession, often superseding the more positive aspects of receiving an education, and frequently ignoring the negative physical and psychological consequences this pursuit has on children.

Among the consequences of this very narrow definition of success is that students have come to believe that a true measure of their overall success is successful admission to university. Putting themselves under tremendous pressure, they lose sleep over getting distinctions, believing that success in finals will guarantee success at university.

The truth, says Dr Felix Maringe, the head of the school of education at the University of the Witwatersrand, is that the evidence doesn’t support the claim that matric success guarantees university success.

“While we should give credit and, indeed, congratulate learners from our schools who pass matric and qualify to join our universities, there is evidence which shows that success in school-level examinations can be attributed to teaching methods which emphasise rote learning, excessive and repeated practice. Such methods do not have much relevance to most university learning tasks.”

Maringe says that learning at university requires critical thinking skills, identification, selection, and evaluation of evidence to support the development of ideas and understanding. “Many young people have little or no preparation in such skills when they get to university,” he says. “As such, these students find it challenging to make the transition from ‘studying’ to ‘reading’ for the university degree. Succeeding at university is more dependent on reading rather than on studying.”

If this is the case, how do matrics – even parents – avoid the pressure which invariably sets in at the beginning of their final year?

Although there is the obvious and important need to build a culture of resilience in our children, Abrahamsom feels it is short sighted just to expect pupils to develop traits and skills to cope with academic pressure. “It is up to the adults in their lives, their parents, their teachers, and educational leaders to work out ways to reduce that pressure, and to question seriously how best to educate their children.

“It is important that adults remind the child that these narrow definitions of success, these grades, these numbers, don’t describe who they are, and that their interactions with others, their contribution to society and discovering and developing their own individual strengths, is actually much more important in the long run.”

Abrahamson thinks it essential that parents pay closer attention to the individual natures of kids and not just accept that they should conform to fit the system. Parents should not only focus on marks and percentages, but on whether their child is engaged with learning, enjoying learning, and thinking creatively and independently.

“We need a revolution in education,” he says. “We need to broaden our definition of success and broaden what we teach. It may mean measuring non-cognitive skills, like character, ethics, or social responsibility. It probably means upsetting power balances in schools, giving kids more control over their learning. It certainly starts with shaking up all the accepted wisdoms that we hold about education.”