The voice that you hear in the wilderness is not the voice of John the Baptist, asking the citizens of Jordan to repent, it is rather the voice of a child’s melancholy over the epidemic coronavirus. The outcry pleads for a solution to curb the spread of the virus so that he can adjust the imbalances it has produced on his studies.

This virus is viciously taking our fellow brothers and sisters lives nationwide, it has further obliged the government to take precautionary measures such as the immediate shutting down of schools. For a grade 12 candidate like me, learning progressively has come to a halt, while virtual learning has become the pertinent suggestion, due to financial constraints it becomes inaccessible and I believe I’m not the only fallen victim. This disease not only claims people’s lives but it also has our birth-right to education hanging by a thread.

It is sobbing how the latter has taken over the world and left all States in sombre but could it at least have mercy on those who are subject to Education especially the Class of 2020. The thought of not being in a conducive learning environment is rather ironic considering what is happening all over the world. The stay at home concept is more leisurely to those who need it but for some of us, learning from home has never brought any solace, I don’t even have my own bedroom to begin with, now tell me how am I supposed to study in the kitchen while my parents and siblings are preparing dinner? Or my brother is easily listening to his rackling loud music in the dining room?

This is a contemporary issues that no living Grade 12 candidate under the sun can turn a deaf ear, it is a predicament that has all of us in perpetual frustration and agony. My attempts to my studies are not sufficient to the world that preaches the gospel of Fourth Industrial Revolution to parents who cannot even afford a laptop or tablets for their children. I am one of many learners who has PYMA as their refuge, now due to the lockdown all of that is shattered. My academics are being threatened by Covid-19 and I am in constant misery, panic and battling with the fear of the unknown…

Nkosinamandla Jeju, Grade 12 Silver Oaks Secondary School.