Noncebo Bonelwa has finally completed matric – at the age of 39.
She dropped out in 2005 but went back to school in 2021. She picked up from where she had left off, sitting in the grade 11 class with learners half her age.
She told Scrolla.Africa that life after dropping out was hard “but I realised I needed to go back to school after having a child whom I failed to provide for.
“I did sewing and hospitality courses, but I ended up working in an Indian curtain shop,” she said.
“It was hard working seven days a week, for long hours and for little money.”
Getting back to school was difficult because most high schools would not accept her after the long gap away from class. She was eventually enrolled at Ekuphumleni High, but she still had to endure being mocked by teachers and learners for her age.
“The teenagers laughed at me and even provoked me,” she said.
“However, I smiled at them. I didn’t care about the mockery because I was on a mission to pass.”
She said when she asked them for help with her schoolwork they eventually accepted her.
“Teachers would even encourage me to motivate the other learners by sharing my story,” she said.
Bonelwa’s father was a subsistence farmer and her mother worked at a creche for R50 a month. They all stayed in a one-roomed house: her parents, Bonelwa and her two younger siblings and two cousins.
Her mother however decided to quit her job at 39 in 1996 and studied teaching. After completing her studies she got a job and built her family a nine-roomed house.
Bonelwa said as the firstborn she felt pressure to make something of her life because all her younger siblings are now successful professionals.
She passed her matric with a diploma admission. Now she wants to study teaching or social work, depending on what she gets accepted for.
“Young people must take their studies seriously while they are still young. Life is hard without education and studying doesn’t become any easier,” she said.
Pictured above: Noncebo Bonelwa in her school uniform
Image source: Supplied
