Dearest Ma'am

I have written to info@deb.gov.za but my email has not been acknowledged yet, so I'm not sure that ma'am has received it. I'm hoping this site is monitored and my email will reach ma'am. Please could ma'am check the full email - here I will copy excerpts.

I write on behalf of many matric learners. I am trying to establish what our Maths Papers 1 and 2 was all about ?(especially 1) I have personally been blessed academically and have never scored less than 95% for Maths in my entire school career. I also do AP Maths and manage an A there. I've written UCT NBT's and scored 89%. I've done various Maths competitions and most recently at UCT, I received a Merit Award. Thanks is due to our Creator for His gifts which I appreciate and work hard to show appreciation for.

The purpose of this introduction is not to boast but hopefully to show Ma'am that I have worked from day 1, in all of my subjects but most especially in Maths. I scored 100% for Maths 1 in our Mock exam. My final result was 96%.
If I score 80% for both of these papers, I'll be lucky. Some would say I shouldn't complain but if you work like I did and do over 6 years worth of past papers with a goal in mind and then you produce the worst result ever - it has to be the most demotivating feeling I have ever experienced. In addition to this, I've recently learned that if our Final NSC exam result is not within 10% above or below our SBA, then our NSC certificate results will be based solely on the final exam. This was my other saving grace however, I'm questioning whether I will be within 10% and whether this is, in fact, accurate?. I'm hoping this is inaccurate because it is truly unfair - could Ma'am provide some clarification regarding this too? Some people say if the grades have dropped dramatically then the department will adjust accordingly and those who normally get "A's" will get their A's. Does that mean if I score 85 I won't be adjusted? I usually score above 97 - 100? Ma'am I am asking the questions directly because don't want to distress myself with hearsay, nor do I want to get my hopes up.

I am writing to ask what the meaning of this was? Is it a lesson we're meant to be taught? Rumours abound ma'am and I don't like rumours, hence my email to you. I've long since been this disillusioned. I also write because so many of my friends whom I have tried to help (and they did well last term), they've been preparing to write the supplementary exam and are coming to terms with losing their university spots because they suspect they fail Maths this year.

A friend of mine who is a genius in my mind (at a different school), scores an average of 97% aggregate every year - she wrote to me after paper 1 and said - "hard work = success is a squared lie." My other friend's tutor struggled with some questions! Seriously.

Interestingly enough, many learners (from different schools) who had tutors who worked through IEB with them identified some examples in our papers. The schools who do that, their learners seem fine. I didn't think to study IEB past papers. Was I meant to? As mentioned, I did 6 years of past papers and scored above 97% on all of them.

Ma'am, I am appealing to you to evaluate these results and make a judgement call on moderating it/adjusting accordingly or allowing a rewrite so that many hard working learners can actually pass because they deserve it.

I thank you for reading my email and I pray you will consider my request.

Sincerely,

Anon.

PS - I'm certain Ma'am is aware of the stories, petitions and media / air time this has received. I'm not looking to stress you out further, but I thought I would appeal to Ma'am directly.