The Namibian Ministry of Education recently held an award ceremony to acknowledge and celebrate learners’ hard work during the 2013 National Examination. Two Allan Gray Scholars from Windhoek High School were awarded for their achievements in the Namibian Junior Secondary Certificate (Grade 10).
Julia Nampweya received the award for overall best learner in the six subjects of the Junior Secondary Certificate in the Khomas region. Namsov Community Trust and Standard Bank together awarded her with N$4000. Justice Sheehama, also of the Khomas region, received the award for second overall best learner in the six subjects of the Junior Secondary Certificate. She received N$3000 from Standard Bank.
Julia and Justice’s awards for overall best learner means that they outperformed their peers in the region; a Namibian region being similar to a South African province. This means that they had straight A’s(between 80% and 100%) and the highest percentage (within the 80%-100% bracket) for the specific subjects.
Their achievements are significant in light of the aims of the Scholarship Programme and the selection criteria of the Fellowship Programme. Scholars who exhibit outstanding academic performance have a better chance of qualifying for the Fellowship Programme and gaining access to their preferred university. Excellent academic performance among Scholars also goes a long way in cementing the relationship between the Foundation and their partner schools. This advances the placement of future Scholars as schools come to expect top performance from them.
We are very proud of Justice and Julia. They are both self-disciplined learners who are humble about their achievements and show great respect to everyone they encounter. Their performance has always exceeded the Foundation’s standards. Julia, for example, consistently achieves 100% in Entrepreneurship while Justice does the same in Accounting. Their respective average for the second term of last year was 87% and 96%. Despite the social challenges that they face as teenagers they’ve managed to retain a position among the school’s top ten learners every year. Their achievements are indicators of what we mean when we speak of the Foundation’s Pillar of Achievement Excellence.
Julia, in particular, is very deserving of this acknowledgement by the Namibian Ministry of Education. Upon finishing her national examination last year, she did school visits in her village to motivate the Grade 7 learners. In addition, she made arrangements to help learners that were struggling with Mathematics and Science. She is courageous, proactive and already displays the characteristics of having a Spirit of Significance.
Both these Scholars have immense potential and we at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation in Namibia are excited to continue this journey towards greatness with them.