Ms Amulet Tseke’s journey to completing a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree at the University of Pretoria was nothing short of challenging. When she received the acceptance letter from the School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA), she was already a few months pregnant and expecting twins.  She decided that this will not stop her, nor did she plan on resigning from her workplace, so she accepted the offer to pursue her studies. At that time she had been working in the public sector for 12 months, coming from the engineering private sector. Therefore, it was important for her to learn as much as she could about public administration in the early days of her public sector career.

She recalls that, during the orientation week, the professors kept asking the class if they were up for the challenge, as it will be challenging going forward. With a seven month twin-carrying belly, she felt like they were indirectly eyeing her. Despite her full-time job working in middle-management at the Gauteng Provincial Treasury and the twin girls she was expecting, she said “yes, I am ready. As a believer, I trusted God to give me the strength to finish the degree.”

The first semester was the most difficult, not only because it was uncomfortable to sit in class all day while fighting fatigue, but as an engineering undergraduate, she was very new to this area of study. She was writing essays for the first time, so it took her a while to grasp some concepts and conventions. She had to deregister two modules, as it coincided with her delivery date, and then she had a late, penalised assignment submission because she gave birth prematurely, staying in NICU for two weeks. Despite this, she pushed to finish the assignment and prepare for first semester exams, which were a few weeks after she gave birth. Although she passed all modules, she did not perform the way she would have liked.

During the second semester it became more manageable and after completing the required modules, she started to understand her employment duties better. It was still a challenge to study with two infants who woke up every three hours, but she wanted to perform better than the first semester, so she put in an even greater effort, seeking help whenever she could. At the beginning of the year she challenged herself to get a distinction and at least 70% for her dissertation. This was also a way of enabling her to improve her overall performance. As the year started, however, she had to go for an operation to remove a tumour. This set her back a month on her dissertation work. Once she recovered, she tackled the outstanding modules and exams, obtaining two distinctions, and completed her dissertation, obtaining the minimum target she has set for herself.

In her own words: “My personal take-away lessons from the journey I have walked in the past two years are that if you want to finish something, focus on the task and not so much on the things that are making it difficult for you to complete the task. When you have adequate support, you can accomplish anything you want, so seek help as much as possible. Furthermore, if you set clear goals, it is easier to push through challenges. My biggest lesson was that if I was able to finish my studies considering my circumstances, I really have no excuse not to achieve my goals.”