MOSSEL BAY NEWS - JSE-listed independent education provider, Curro, held its annual Matric Top Achievers' Awards ceremony in Johannesburg last Saturday, 12 January to honour its 2018 top matric performers and its schools throughout the country.
Among these impressive academic performers were matrics from Curro Mossel Bay's Class of 2018.
Last year was an exceptional one for Curro Holdings' IEB schools, with an overall pass rate of 99.7% for its grade 12 learners.
The results indicated an increase in the number of students with university exemption, growing from 85% to 88%; the number of A candidates, improving from 9.8% to 11.5%; and candidates with an average higher than a C, rising from 70.3% to 73.2%. These are the best results yet.
The awards ceremony saw a unique occurrence - two learners shared the number one spot as top IEB academic achiever.
Asande Vilane from St Dominic's Academy in Newcastle and Lara van Rooyen from Curro Mossel Bay both managed to attain an average of 92.8571%. This was the first time in Curro's 20 years of existence that the top spot was shared.
Van Rooyen scored in the top 1% for Afrikaans first additional language, English home language, mathematics and life sciences. She took inspiration from her parents, both surgeons, noting that she too will be studying medicine.
With seven As to her name, Van Rooyen has already been accepted by the University of Michigan, but is expecting feedback from other American universities soon, among them Yale, before making her big decision.
Not all exemplary achievements emerged only from attaining outstanding grades.
A Mossel Bay learner from the Curro Class of 2018 had to overcome an extraordinary obstacle to complete his final year, and yet despite the odds, he did so in an inspiring fashion.
Gustav Swart from Curro Mossel Bay was one of the learners who stood out during the past year. Swart's deep sense of community involvement led him to volunteer at a hospital emergency room during the 2017 December holidays.
Lara van Rooyen from Curro Mossel Bay tied with another learner in achieving Curro's 2018 top IEB achiever award. She receives her award from Andries Greyling, CEO of Curro Holdings.
During the course of one of his shifts, he was exposed to a contagious disease. While the subsequent treatment helped, it also had many negative side effects, which left him sick in the morning and tired during the day. Swart, however, persevered and studied hard to eventually obtain 76.3%.
Despite what some might describe as a negative experience, Swart still aspires to study medicine and he will be starting his journey this year at the University of the Free State, having qualified for a BSc in biochemistry and genetics.
'We bring you the latest Mossel Bay, Garden Route news'
