THE launch of the 2020 Junior Certificate (JC) final examinations on Monday by the Minister of Education and Training Ms Ntlhoi Motsamai brought a huge sigh of relief to the entire Basotho nation.

The notion of the external learners having to stay on perhaps another year without writing their exams was having a devastating impact on everybody’s life.

The parents were beginning to lose hope on their children’s future which would have turned out for the worst, without a chance to decent education.

The learners themselves were truly frustrated because they had no idea as to what would eventually become of their young lives.

The teachers, especially from privately owned schools who do not enjoy the benefits of government subsidized salaries were getting worked up by the day as they were on the threshold of joining thousands of other Basotho who are jobless.

The launch of the exams has consequently brought hope to other learners in other classes, pupils from lower schools and students in institutions of higher learning that someday not too far into the future, things will probably return to normal.

Everything might not go back to the way it was before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic because as things stand now, the deadly virus is not going to leave us anytime soon. We nonetheless just have to roll with the punches and learn to live with it. 

The pandemic’s devastating effects are felt and seen everywhere one looks, jobs are being lost by the day as companies run out of business. People keep dying on daily basis in amazingly huge numbers with no sign of a reprieve anywhere in sight.

The nurses’ ensuing fight for salary hikes is not helping the situation as scores of patients under their care perish without their full attention, notwithstanding that the health care providers’ concerns are genuine given they are on the frontline in the fight against the pandemic