He wants to follow in his late mother’s footsteps and become a chartered accountant Christopher Singh. Picture: Video screengrab
FORMER top student Christopher Singh turned his life around in prison, achieving five distinctions in the 2004 matric exams at Usethubeni Youth School.
Inspired by his ill grandmother and driven by a desire to honour his late mother's legacy, Singh's story is a powerful testament to redemption through education.
Singh completed his matric behind bars in 2024 and passed 5 out of his 8 subjects with distinctions, earning him the title "Top Matriculant 2024" at his school.
He struggled with completing school before his incarceration, even though he was a top pupil at his school at the time.
Unfortunately, the bad company he kept as a teenager led him to lose his top 10 spot in school and later being expelled.
Soon after getting expelled, Singh was arrested and has since been behind bars.
With his arrest he was unable to complete his Grade 11 and had no ambition to complete his schooling in prison.
“I was an ‘A’ student in primary school but when I got to high school, I succumbed to peer-pressure from people I thought were my friends. I basically went against my own family for my friends. This made my family lose hope in me.
“I started doing drugs. I made a lot of mistakes and I never believed school would help me in any way. That's when I got expelled and went to jail,” said Singh in an interview with the Department of Correctional Services.
However, his sick grandmother, who had been his dearest family member, pushed him to continue studying and for her sake, he persevered.
“For my first year in jail I didn't want to go to school. But I got a call from my granny and she told me she had suffered a heart attack. In that moment, I felt like I was failing the one person that actually ever truly loved me in my life.
“I decided then that I wanted to do something to make her happy. All she wanted for me was to get a matric certificate. She said it would give her peace in her life. That was when I started my back to school journey. I went back to Grade 11 and I studied every day,” said Singh.
He said through studying he realised he could not do it alone.
“You must have someone that you could study with and that's when I started engaging with my classmates. We made sure we put in what we wanted to get out, after all the hard work and effort. I have really put in and I am really grateful that my results could actually be position one.
“My goal was not to compete with others. It was to compete with myself, so I could set higher limits,” said Singh.
He said he started studying for matric a year before it began, making sure he had all the materials and information he needed to do well.
“I prepared and planned. I set my objectives, which were the steps towards my goals. My objectives were to study from Grade to 11 before I even went to Grade 12. During the holidays, I studied every single day and asked previous matriculants to lend me their textbooks.
“I started researching ways to help me study because I knew I wanted to achieve something great,” Singh added.
He said he owed a lot of his success to the teachers at Usethubeni Youth School. They believed in him as a person and not a prisoner, he said.
“They treat us well and although I made a mistake, this was my opportunity to change my life and make a way out.”
Singh is now hoping to follow in his late mother's footsteps to become a chartered accountant.
“I have already applied to UNISA as I want to follow in my mother’s footsteps. She passed away when I was two. She was a chartered accountant so now I want to study B.Com accounting and I want to do a seven year master's degree so that I can become a chartered accountant,” said a determined Singh.