BEd GRADUATE AND BUSINESSMAN – A FIRST IN HIS FAMILY

The scourge of poverty did little to quell the hunger and enthusiasm of a recently-capped WSU faculty of education graduate whose years of a relentless toil saw him emerging as the first in his family to pass matric, and to obtain a tertiary education qualification.  

Thabo Sitshi, who graduated with a bachelor of education (BEd) degree at the Komani Campus on Tuesday 6 May, has proven an immense source of pride and inspiration for his family – a cohort consisting of eight children raised by a single mother.

“I am indeed the second last born of eight children and, quite painfully, grew up seeing my mother struggling to take care of us with regards to feeding us and clothing us. Some days, we even asked for help from our neighbours just to get some food. This struggle was all the motivation I need to push and make something of myself,” said Sitshi.

His post-matric academic journey has not always been aligned to teaching, with his first attempt at obtaining a degree failing to properly launch after he enrolled for a bachelor of commerce in 2019, before quitting a few months later.

In a bold and calculated move, Sitshi then went back to school to improve his matric results in 2020 – a decision borne out of a deep interest to enrol for a degree in mining engineering.

His decision to re-do his matric proved fruitful as he improved his marks quite significantly, and in 2021 he got another bite at the proverbial cherry after enrolling for the mining engineering degree at a university in Gauteng.

“I wanted to be a mining engineer because I met all the requirements and got admitted to the university in Gauteng, I even  registered,  but unfortunately I couldn’t qualify for funding for some reason and then I had to drop out and fortunately, using the financial aid scheme, Fundza Lushaka, I was  able to enrol for a BEd degree at the WSU Mthatha Campus. I never wanted to be a teacher but my uncle convinced me my encouraging me to study anything that will ensure I break the chains of poverty in my family,” said Sitshi.

So naturally adapt to teaching that the first-year student would earn a tutoring gig later in the same year – a role he would reprise as a second and third-year student as well.

Recognizing his talent and passion for teaching, Sitshi later went on to open a tutoring company, Ntsendwana Science Tutoring, an enterprise named after his father, with an initial intake of just two learners.

“I started with just two learners who were doing very poorly when they first enrolled for the classes. We took them from level 1 to level 6 by the end of 2024. At the end of this very year, I had 30 learners. Now my company is well known in Mthatha with 60 learners,” he said.

Sitshi is currently doing his BEd Honours, majoring in Maths and Science at the Komani Campus.

By Thando Cezula