talent chitsaka

DID YOU KNOW Taida Drucilla Mapara is a Zimbabwean who made headlines after she scored 15 points in the June A’ Level Cambridge examinations in 2020 aged 14 years and enrolled for medical degree at such a tender age becoming the youngest student to enrol for such a degree in Africa. Taida is the first-born child in a family of three girls. She has two siblings; Zoey and Chloe who are her twin sisters. Her father is Ernest, an engineer, and her mother is Debra, a primary school teacher. She completed her primary and secondary school in eight years, instead of the usual 13 years. At some point, she had to be home-schooled as her parents struggled to send her to school. She was home-schooled for a year before enrolling at Maranatha Junior School in 2012. After a week in Grade One, her mother was called by the school officials who said after evaluating her level of intelligence, they had requested that she proceeds to Grade Two. Although her parents agreed, they were not sure if she could cope, but within a short space of time, she rose to become a top student in her class. In 2016, her Grade Six class had to be disrupted as the family relocated to Ghana. For several months, she had to be home-schooled again before she enrolled at a regular school. After four weeks at Ghana’s Association International School, the authorities were moved by her intelligence and upgraded her to Grade Seven. In no time, she wrote her Grade Seven exams and emerged as the top student. She went on to pass her secondary Cambridge checkpoint with distinctions and was automatically placed into a Form Two class, skipping Form One in the process. Noting her intelligence, she was challenged to attempt the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) in a year. IGCSE is normally a two-year programme leading to externally set, marked and certificated examinations from the University of Cambridge, and any student who passes it gains a qualification that is globally recognised. At IGCSE, she attained four A+, five A’s and a B. In 2019, her family moved back to Zimbabwe and enrolled her at Hilbright Science College, although it was already mid-year. The family had challenges securing an A’ Level place since it was mid-year. In October, Hilbright Science College agreed to enrol her with the intention of helping her with studies while she searched for a boarding school for January 2020. She took Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology. However, by January 2020, the school was convinced she was ready for Advanced Level exams, hence they convinced her parents to pay examination fees. In 2020, Taida enrolled to study medicine at Malawi’s College of Medicine. Although she wished to study for her Degree in Medicine with the University of Zimbabwe, the results came late for the August 2020 intake, leading her to choose her second option, Malawi College of Medicine.