Moshupa senior secondary school
10 Mar 2021
The sole Botswana General Certificate in Secondary Education top achiever from Moshupa Senior Secondary School (MOSEC) says he reached the top spot through nothing but hard work.
Mr Collen Matale is the only MOSEC former pupil who made the grade with eight A* and two Bs.
BOPA spoke to the high flier on Saturday and he came across as a disciplined young man.
He shared anecdotes of sacrifice and hard work behind his story of success.
From a tender age, Standard Six to be precise, he followed a standard self-help mantra of purpose, focus, hard work and persistence.
He said he was an average performer but worked hard to elevate himself to high performer.
He said testimonies of sacrifice and hard work narrated by some previous top achievers propelled him to push beyond his capacity.
He adopted the phrase ‘hard work pays’ and engraved it in his heart. Reading and learning became his lifestyle and he did not allow distructions, socialising or time wasting to get in the way of his aim.
Mr Matale said he sacrificed pleasures of the moment in the belief that victory was possible for anyone who refused to stop working hard.
For him, the goal was to focus on the result he wanted and to work towards it with sheer will power.
This, he said, involved a step-by-step process of reading ahead rather than just relying on teachers to feed him information, and the process paid dividends in the end.
The chemical engineer in the making is now aiming to enrol at a top university and pursue his first love: Science.
His long standing desire is to break new ground with an invention that will change the lives of Batswana. He added that the desire has fossilised into an obsession.
He also remembered former president Nelson Mandela’s words that every achievement always seemed improbable until it happened.
Consequently, Mr Matale believes that he can do just about anything he sets his mind on. His conviction was proved right when he joined a statistics class in December 2020, a year later than everybody else, and went on to pass the subject with an A* at the finals.
However, he was not a nerd with eyes for his books only. At Form Four he vied for the position of Student Representative Council deputy president and won.
He said the objective was to hone his social and leadership skills.
His mother described him as a disciplined young man who was mature for his age.
When he passed Standard Seven with an A, Ms Beauty Matale, a teacher herself, thought it was just a fluke.ENDS
Author : Topo Monngakgotla