I am Sphathise Ntalo a 17 year old boy doing his first year in Bcom Financial Accounting at University of Cape Town. I did my Grade 12 last year at St James Senior Secondary School and I was identified as one of the Eastern Cape top achievers with 7 Distinctions.

The reason I am writing this message it is because over the past years I noticed that our education system is unfair and it only gives recognition to certain learners who did certain subjects. I noticed that the only learners who are taken seriously in South Africa are only those who did science. Those who did commercial subjects (such as Accounting) are not taken into account.

This whole problem starts at the National Top Achievers’ awards, it is sad that the only pupils who are given privilege as being top achievers are only those who did sciences. You only have the ‘Top learners in Sciences’, ‘Top learners in Maths and sciences’, what about the ‘Top learners in Accounting’ or ‘Top learners in Accounting and Maths’? This may not be seen as a big issue but it is a very important factor as it makes other subjects less important than the others, and it result in learners not performing well because they know that, even if they do, they will not get recognition for their good work.

All subjects are important and they play a certain role in the Economy of South Africa. Accounting is an important subject just as science. We have Chartered Accountants, actuaries, auditors et cetera, because of Accounting, and it is needed almost in every field. Learners who did Accounting in High school should be given the same respect as those who did sciences.

I therefore appeal to you to give recognition to all learners regardless of the subjects they did, by including more subjects when doing the National Top Achievers’ awards.

I hope that this message will reach the Minister’s hands and will be given special attention.