When he joined Balmoral College at the beginning of last year Teacher Nkululeko Ndlovu was keen to have the school participate in Varsity College’s national annual high schools quiz competition.
At the school he’d previously taught at he’d been the driving force behind the participation in the competition by learners there and wanted to play a leading role at Balmoral in encouraging its learners to take part, as well as coaching the most promising of them to do well.
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 early last year, however, with stringent restrictions being imposed by the government on gatherings and travel to contain the spread of the virus, Varsity College was obliged to cancel the 2020 competition.
Although the pandemic continued unabated in 2021, the easing of restrictions enabled the organisers to revive the competition and run it in the normal way with preliminary local and regional contests leading up to the national Final in early-October. Mr Ndlovu, who teaches Maths and Natural Sciences to Grades 7 & 8 at Balmoral, wasted no time about ensuring that the school took part in it for the first time.
The competition is open to schools all around the country for learners in Grades 9 to 11 and the topics covered encompass Geography, History, Science, Sport, Entertainment and Current Affairs.
The competition, which drew entries from more than 200 schools, commenced in mid-August with the local contests, with four contestants from each school taking part.
In this first round, in which Balmoral’s contestants comprised one Grade 11 learner and three Grade 10 learners, 18-year-old Mayibongwe Ncube, the Grade 11 learner, came third, so qualifying for the next round, while the other three were eliminated.
In the regional contest, which was held a week later, Mayibongwe, now competing against 14 other qualifiers, put in an impressive performance to make the cut for the national Final by coming second, as only the top two in each regional round make it into the Final, which took place on October 2 at Varsity College’s Sandton campus, featured a total of eight contestants – two each from the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng.
“Mayibongwe admitted to me afterwards that he found the Final very competitive and tough going, but he kept his nerve and did very well in coming Third,” said a delighted Mr Ndlovu.
For this achievement he was awarded a cash prize of R3000, a tablet, a power bank and earphones and a speaker for a radio. He was also presented with a certificate as a record of his achievement. In addition, Balmoral College itself was also presented with a generous cash prize.
Mr Ndlovu said that despite his experience in coaching learners at his previous school for the competition he’d had misgivings early this year when he started testing Balmoral College learners in preparation for the 2021 event. “But I pressed on with running regular practice sessions to improve their knowledge in the various subjects covered by the competition, so by the time we selected our contestants for the first round I was much more confident about our prospects,” he remarked.
Memory Wium, Balmoral’s Principal, congratulated Mayibongwe for his achievement. She also commended Mr Ndlovu for his dedication in guiding and coaching Mayibongwe and the other Balmoral learners who participated.
“Our participation and success in the competition this year have further enhanced our reputation as one of the top schools in the country,” she commented.
