An increasing number of women are seriously challenging men in what was once their exclusive domain – the world of business. In the past women become involved in business because their husbands passed away. They would look after it until the boys grew older.

Nowadays women have made unbelievable in-roads into the business sector. A perfect example close to home is Masizilungisele Funeral Parlour which is operated by a woman. Further up the hill from Masizilungisele is Thembi Ncube from the Fast Track.

Thembi’s story is a typical rags-to-riches kind of story. As a child her passion was to become a fashion designer but her family’s financial circumstances prevented her from attending tertiary education. To cut a long story short, Thembi enlisted in one of the many dressmaking schools in town for a year.

Since then she has never looked back. Today she has a studio of her own that teaches others to become dressmakers. Her speciality is wedding gowns. At R250 per month students are taught everything about dressmaking until they graduate. They can either graduate after 12 months and receive a certificate or stay on for another year to receive a diploma.

“Most people come here not having a single clue about using a sewing machine let alone cutting a pattern, but after a few months they make wonderful clothing. Before they graduate they must sew a wedding gown of their choice,” said Thembi.

Oh no, not again! This was my reaction when I learnt about the matric results at one of the oldest and most respected schools in Durban. Yes, you guessed it right – Chesterville High School. For the past four years the school has averaged a 13,6% matric pass rate.

At first I thought it was the apartheid government getting even with the residents of the township via their children because of the township’s involvement in the fight against apartheid. Almost every house lost a family member during the bitter years of the struggle and almost every 25-year-old is a former member of either the ANC’s Umkhonto weSizwe or the PAC’s Poqo.

But the results have been spiralling downwards notwithstanding the fact that the government is now a people’s government. So my suspicions were unfounded.

I have therefore made it my business to take a closer look at some of the factors that could be contributing negatively to the matric results mix.

1. The matriculants are not ambitious about their future and lack discipline:

• they spend too much time boycotting for trivial things;
• they do not make sure that there is a teacher for every lesson

2. Teachers are failing to prepare the students for their final exams:

• on numerous occasions they let students go home early;
• they do not give students enough work to keep them on their toes, other schools give homework on the first day of school. Stationery lists are given the year before.

3. Parents do not care much about their children’s education:

• they do not question the child’s early return from school. This happens almost daily;
• they do not monitor the child’s progress.

4. The community is not bothered by the impact of poor matric results on its reputation. They should

• challenge the integrity of the results;
• unite to solve the school’s problems by forming structures e.g. governing bodies and parent-teacher associations.

I and many others who are bothered by the current state of results at the school are not putting blame on the system of education. Many great leaders are products of the same system. If schools like Zwelibanzi, Vukuzakhe and Ogwini in Umlazi can achieve a 100% pass rate in matric what can stop Chesterville High from doing the same.

It is my opinion that the community as a collective should involve itself in the education of their children. An uneducated community will remain an ignorant community. The impact of this is the increase of unemployable youth, crime will rise, unwanted teenage pregnancy will escalate.