It takes over the dubious distinction from Mbizana.

The district scored a dismal 35.5 percent pass rate in 2009 – a drop from 37.9 percent in 2008.

Of the 2293 pupils who wrote exams in the Qumbu district, only 813 pupils passed.

Qumbu, which has 28 schools in total, forms part of Cluster A, which includes Mbizana, Libode, Mount Fletcher, Maluti, Mount Frere and Lusikisiki.

In June last year, the district was already showing signs of failure with an overall 25 percent pass rate.

Josiah Mxolisi Mvana, principal of Sandy Majeke Senior Secondary School for the past 31 years, was very disappointed with his school’s results.

Of the 27 pupils who wrote matric exams last year, only 11 passed.

Nontobeko Mavumengwana, the acting principal of Shawbury Senior Secondary School, said that while she was disappointed her school had achieved a dismal 16.3 percent pass rate, she wouldn’t lose hope.

The Mbizana district, subject of a two-week Daily Dispatch investigation, showed an 8.5 percentage point improvement from the 2008 matric results.

District director Victor Mkentane said that he was pleased with the dedication shown by the teachers in the district last year.

In the June exams, things were not looking good for the district, which managed to only achieve a 28 percent pass rate.

Despite the June performance, the district set a goal of 60 percent for the final matric exam.

In order for this to be achieved, special tuition and revision material was prepared and distributed, and teaching hours were extended.

Mbizana, which achieved a dismal 29.3 percent, has 23 schools in total with 3065 pupils who wrote exams.

In an effort to turn the results around, Mkentane said that on top of the interventions implemented by the national and provincial departments of Basic Education and Education, he had earmarked 600 pupils out of 25schools to aim for admission to study towards a bachelor’s degree.

“I am happy with the performance,” he said.

“I congratulate the teachers who were patient with the pupils.”

“I am very proud of Bizana Village and Vulindlela Comprehensive Technical for what they have achieved.”

Mkentane, however, expressed his disappointment with schools such as Marelane Senior Secondary School and Ntabezulu Senior Secondary who, despite having classes until 10pm, only achieved 21.4 percent and 33percent respectively.

Principal of Chief Dumile Senior Secondary, Mlamleli Matshoba, was disappointed that his school had achieved a 25.3 pass rate – down from 45 percent in 2008.

“I guess we got what we deserved, but I am very disappointed.…” he said. – By ASA SOKOPO

VIDEO: Eastern Cape Education MEC Mahlubandile Qwase speaks to DispatchOnline about Mbizana’s matric results.

Learners write a biology test in one of the overcrowded classrooms at Nomagqwethekana Comp Tech High School.Picture: ALAN EASON

Following former Education Minister Naledi Pandor’s visit to the Mbizana district, the Daily Dispatch investigated why education in the district was in shambles.

The Dispatch team spent 10 days in the area prior to the Grade 12 exams at the end of last year.

The team visited Chief Dumile Senior Secondary School, Nomagqwethekana Comprehensive Technical High School and Mpondombini Senior Secondary School.

The Dispatch team found:

• Overcrowded classes with a ration of 100 pupils to a teacher, as opposed to 35:1. When some pupils write tests or exams, the others can’t learn;

• Insufficient text books, no libraries for research which is imperative for the Outcomes-based Education curriculum as there are many projects required to meet the grade, and there are also no science labs for science pupils;

• Ill-disciplined pupils and high absentee rates as a result of families headed by pupils. Also, pupils who walk long distances to school are often absent or late;

• Teachers are demoralised – too much to do, even during weekends and school holidays;

• Many teachers told of pupils’ inability to read, write and understand English. They say this is due to a lack of proper teaching at primary school level. As a result, pupils fail to understand question papers;

• In one case, infighting between the principal and deputy principal left the school without proper leadership as the principal was forced out;

• Teachers also blame the high failure rate on pregnancies. Pupils either drop out of school or give birth during exam time;

• Drug abuse – teachers tell of trying to teach children who are hungover or high on dagga. Pupils also bunk classes to smoke dagga; and

• Principals say they cannot provide leadership while they still have to do other work, like teaching in overcrowded classrooms and attending district meetings. — By ASA SOKOPO

He was writing about the social problems that beset the youth in Victorian England, but he might well have been referring to Mbizana – in 2008 the province’s worst performing education district and, according to the findings of the Dispatch’s latest investigation, one still mired in seemingly intractable problems.

When the district’s matric pass rate plummeted to 29.3 percent in 2008, former Education Minister Naledi Pandor made ringing promises, vowing that such a situation would never happen again. To their credit, the authorities have made interventions but the question is whether these have been too little, too late. The mid-year 2009 exam result – 28 percent – showed little sign of recovery and when the Dispatch team spent two weeks in the area in November we continued to find shockingly overcrowded classrooms, no science labs or libraries, insufficient learning materials, understaffing and scores of pregnant girls and dropouts. Worse still, we encountered demotivated pupils and teachers and a general atmosphere of hopelessness. Pupils do not even bother to apply for university because they believe they lack the basics and, anyway, they have few or no examples from their midst to inspire them.

The real measure of the problem in Mbizana will emerge today when the matric pass rate percentages are revealed, and it is our fervent hope upon hope that there has been some improvement. But even if this is the case, we should not lose sight of the human suffering and the possible consequences of a largely failing system – not only on scores of poor rural children deprived of a future, but on us all. The impact of legions of crushingly poor illiterates roaming our countryside does not have to be spelled out.

Speaking at a Dispatch Dialogue in December political commentator William Gumede compared the development of Ghana and Korea – two countries that threw off their colonial shackles in 1960. Ghana, despite its significant natural resources, has been left way, way behind by a South East Asian country with virtually no natural resources at all. The key to South Korea’s success and galloping economy is that its leaders have thrown everything they can at education, making the development of human capital, along with innovation and ideas, the country’s priority. Currently their science education is rated third best in the world, South Korea ranks second in maths and literature and first in problem solving.

Ensuring that the children of Mbizana district have a hope is not some misty-eyed philanthropic notion, but the only way to heed Dickens’ warning and to ensure that we all have the viable future we desire.

Nomagqwethekana Comprehensive Technical High School pupils in an unfinished classroom. Picture: ALAN EASON

Nomagqwethekana Comprehensive Technical High School is a school renowned for uncooperative pupils and operates with no discipline policies. This school is overcrowded, has a high number of pregnant pupils, child headed households and de-motivated pupils
It is also home to 721 pupils and 21 teachers.
These are some of the reasons behind the school’s massive failure rate.
The school achieved a dismal 13.7 percent in 2008. Out of 131 pupils who wrote exams at Nomagqwethekana, only 18 passed.
While the school principal Nomsa Lukhozi refused to speak to the Daily Dispatch, Business Studies and Life Orientation teacher Makhosandile Swana said pupils had no understanding of why they should be in school.

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Another pupil said that she had resigned herself to a future of domestic work as she had no  illusions of passing school.

But pupils themselves are marginally to blame, while they can do little about the overcrowded classrooms, which have up to 100 pupils at a time, there seems to be a general disinterest in education.
While school starts at 8am, pupils can be seen milling in at 8.45am, latecomers are not sent to the classrooms immediately. However, they are asked to collect rubbish on the school grounds. – By ASA SOKOPO

VIDEO: Asa Sokopo speaks to Nomagqwethekana Comprehensive Technical High School teacher Makhosandile Swana about the problems experienced by the school and the reasons why their matric pass rate was 13.8 percent in 2008.

Chief Dumile Senior Secondary School principal, Mlamleli Matshoba. Picture: ALAN EASON

No school in the Bizana area can ask for more dedicated teachers than those at Chief Dumile Senior Secondary School in KwaNdela location.
But like many schools in the area, with 985 pupils being taught by 13 teachers, there is little chance of success.
A litany of problems, similar to many in the district includes a high rate of teenage pregnancies, overcrowded classrooms, ill discipline and a lack of basic resources – the principal has even accused the pupils of drug trafficking.
For eleven years principal Mlamleli Matshoba has been facing the same challenges – and new to his complaints is the new curriculum.
Like many schools in Bizana, the school is not equipped with libraries, science and computers labs. Pupils at the school come from some of the poorest communities in Bizana and live in homes even 4×4’s cannot reach. Things like televisions, newspapers and even radios are a luxury – these are essentials for pupils in the new Outcomes Based Education system.

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Technology is something foreign to pupils in these communities and teachers told the Dispatch that pupils are even fascinated by televisions and have no clue about current affairs. This, the principal Mlamleli Matshoba said, was one of the reasons why pupils at the school cannot cope with the new Outcomes Based Education system.
Barely able to string together a sentence in English, pupils at the school will have great challenges after they leave high school. While many harbour dreams of becoming doctors, ambulance drivers and even the president of the country, they acknowledge that they still have a long way to go. – By ASA SOKOPO

VIDEO: Asa Sokopo speaks to Mlamleli Matshoba, the principal at Chief Dumile Senior Secondary School in Bizana about why the matric pass rate has fallen so badly in this rural school. Matshoba blames drugs, teenage pregnancy and absenteeism for this once prosperous school’s slipping standards.

TIME OUT IN THE SUN: But the scenic beauty is a mask for the poverty and misery that a lack of hope brings to pupils in the EC’s worst performing district. Picture: ALAN EASON

Education in Mbizana – the Eastern Cape’s worst performing education district – is still in turmoil despite promises from government that 2009 would see a turnaround in the dismal matric pass rate.

In 2008, this district scored the lowest marks in the matric final exams in the province with a pass rate of only 29.3 percent. Of the 2811 matrics who wrote exams in 2008, only 823 passed.
Soon after the results were made public, former education Minister Naledi Pandor visited the district with fanfare and promises. She discovered overcrowded classrooms, schools with no electricity and brand new text books that had not been handed to pupils. After lambasting education officials and principals, Pandor promised that never again would the district be blighted by such failure.

But late last year a Daily Dispatch team went to live in the area in an effort to understand why the Mbizana results were the province’s lowest in 2007 and 2008. The team spent ten days in the Mbizana District, visited four schools in different villages in and around Bizana and spoke to dozens of teachers, pupils and other locals.
This investigation found that this district remains in crisis.

For example, at Nomagqwethekana Comprehensive Technical High School, a teacher said that there were five class rooms with at least 90 pupils each, while the school principal Nomsa Lukhozi teaches 102 in her Grade 12 Geography class.

“How can four pupils be forced to share one textbook while living far from each other. How do they expect us to use the book to study?” said Grade 12 pupil Nkululo Deyi of Nomagqwethekana.

The Dispatch investigation also found:

• Overcrowded classrooms – with up to 120 pupils in a classroom;
• That none of the schools visited had science labs, libraries and sufficient learning material or the tools necessary for the Outcomes-based education system;
• Demotivated pupils and teachers who believe that there was no hope for those learning in Mbizana;
• A staggering number of pregnant pupils;
• A high number of dropouts;
• Pupils as old as 25 years still in matric, and;
• Taverns near a school.

Former Education Minister Naledi Pandor. Picture: FILE

In the middle of last year the 2009 June pass mark of 28 percent suggested a repeat of their poor performance was inevitable as this year’s matric results are released. In the 2009 matric exams, the district’s goal is to achieve a pass rate of over 60 percent.

Since 2006 the district’s pass rate has fallen from 52.4 percent to 29.3 percent in 2008 and received the title of worst performing district in the Eastern Cape.
In an interview with the Dispatch Eastern Cape Education MEC Mahlubandile Qwase admitted that there was a problem in the district and that the department had plans to remedy the situation.

Qwase said the department had instructed all schools to produce school improvement plans (SIP’s) and all had to have matric improvement plans in place.
He said in schools that under perform, principals were forced to produce their SIP’s. The provincial Education Department was confident of a definite improvement in the Mbizana district results in 2009. In an effort to improve marks, the district undertook to temporarily recruit the best teachers to teach Maths and Physical Science and to extend the school day to 4.30pm.

But so dire is the situation in this district that teachers and principals are crying out for help while pupils’ results continue to slide. Many pupils in Bizana schools do not even bother to apply to universities to further their studies – most seem prepared to join their unemployed peers who failed in previous years.

A Grade 12 child at Chief Dumile Senior Secondary School said he lived in constant fear of becoming a casualty of the crumbling education system.

A crowded classroom in Nomagqwethekana Comprehensive Technical High School. Picture: ALAN EASON

Sphesihle Mabaso, 18, is worried that even if he passes matric, he will still trail behind at university because his school still lacks the basics.

“There is no way I will easily cope at university with the education I’m getting here,” said Sphesihle.

Chwaita Burana, a pupil at Nomagqwethekana, said they stood little hope of passing subjects like Maths as two weeks before the start of exams; they had not completed the syllabus.
According to Burana, only one pupil passed Maths in her class during the trial exams. “I can’t afford to come back here next year but Maths is a huge problem for us,” she said.

The area is one of the poorest and densely populated areas in the Transkei with the majority of the population having no average household income.
In the district, one of the Transkei’s poorest and most populous, six to seven percent of learners are orphaned while 19 to 21 percent have only one living relative.
Cluster A, which includes Mbizana, Lusikisiki and Libode districts, has the highest number of learners. In Mbizana alone, the pupil/teacher ration is 41:1 while the pupil/classroom ratio is 60:1.

According to Statistics South Africa the majority of people in Bizana have either no schooling or only some primary school education.

A principal and a teacher at Greenville Senior Secondary School admitted that not a single matric from 2008’s group was at university. Out of the 67 matrics at the school last year, only ten had applied to tertiary institutions by October, a defeated Kholisile Gamdana, principal of Greenville said.

“Teachers are now frustrated by the performance of learners, they give all they can and when it comes to tests and exams they don’t perform. I’m also no longer enjoying the job I do. The morale is low…” said Gamdana.

The infrastructure at the schools is so bad that teachers, including school principals, blame the Department of Education for neglecting the schools while demanding they do the impossible by drastically improving their pass rates.

A teacher at another school said that they were overworked and stretched beyond capacity.

“The education system is demanding a lot of paperwork as a result teachers work 24 hours a day in addition to class work. I am also an HOD (head of department) and I have to moderate question papers for teachers and the marking, prepare mark schedules for my classes while also busy with portfolios for learners,” said Bongiswa Ndala, a teacher at Chief Dumile Senior Secondary School. – By ASA SOKOPO and BONGANI HANS

Education MEC Mahlubandile Qwase. Picture: ALAN EASON

Education MEC Mahlubandile  Qwase highlights the serious problems in education in the Eastern Cape  during an interview with Asa  Sokopo:

SOKOPO: Following former Education Minister Naledi Pandor’s visit  to the province in January 2009, what  has been done to improve the results  in the Mbizana District?

QWASE: From January (2009), I  started a process of visiting each district.
I covered about 14 districts by the  time we went to elections – meeting  principals and chairpersons of school  governing bodies and school management teams.

SOKOPO:What were your observations on what the problems are in  those districts, and specifically in the  Mbizana district?

QWASE: Firstly, text books are not  used effectively and daily tuition time  in rural schools was found to be  around three-and-a-half hours compared to six hours in the suburban  schools. Their performance reflects this. Another issue is leadership in  schools. We’ve been able to link lack  of leadership to many of the problems  we face.

SOKOPO: What interventions have  there been specifically in the Mbizana  district?

QWASE: We developed an intervention plan and had winter and  spring schools. We also identified the  best educators to form part of those  schools; we identified the worst performing schools to make sure that  they were part of the spring and  winter schools. We also introduced afternoon classes and Saturday classes.

Education MEC Mahlubandile Qwase. Picture: SINO MAJANGAZA

SOKOPO: What is the goal for the  districts in the Eastern Cape?

QWASE: Those who got less than  50 percent should get more than  50 percent. The national average is  62 percent so we intend to push to that  level, but given that the average that we got was 50.2 percent, we don’t want to aim very high. The Medium Term Strategic  Framework, which is developed in the  President’s office through the planning commission, has set 20 percent  as a target.
By 2014 we must have improved by  20 percent in terms of the education  outcomes. If you factor that in now, the Eastern  Cape must be at 70.6 percent by 2014.

SOKOPO: What other interventions have there been for the poor-performing districts such as Mbizana?

QWASE: We sent teams to visit all  these schools and they developed  what is called the School Improvement Plan, distributed to schools  across the province.

SOKOPO: What specific focus has  there been on schools in the Mbizana  district?

QWASE: We have collaborated with  the national department. You may  remember when MEC (Mbulelo) Sogoni was still the premier, we signed a  protocol agreement with the former  minister Naledi Pandor to get assistance from the national department. We identified four districts – Bizana, Lusikisiki, Libode and Qumbu.  All of them are in cluster A, which is  the worst performing cluster. We have also brought in a director  from the Western Cape, to come up  with methods that they are using in  the Western Cape.

SOKOPO: What other problems  have you come across?

QWASE: If you look at our quantitative study 2008, it shows that the  classroom-pupil ratio is very high in  the Mbizana district. The Mbizana area is densely populated and has few schools – so these  schools  have many in the classes. There is a shortage of schools and  those learners can’t go anywhere other than the schools closest to them.
This has a direct impact on the  results because you can’t have a class room with one teacher and 100 pupils  and think that there will be effective  teaching and learning.
During examinations, other pupils  must be pulled out of their classrooms  and space must be made available for  Grade 12 and the whole school be comes completely disorganised.

SOKOPO: Teachers in the area say  that they have been given too much to  deal with; many are demoralised and  apathetic. What is the department  doing to help?

QWASE: In the council of education  ministers, we took a decision that one  of the problems impacting negatively  on the quality of teaching and learning was that teachers have a lot of  administrative work. Certain things will be removed such  as the portfolios; review assessment  procedure will also be attended to so  that we focus on the real stuff, rather  than take away the tuition time from  the educator.

Education MEC Mahlubandile Qwase. Picture: SINO MAJANGAZA

SOKOPO:How can pupils be expected to learn without the necessary  resources such as libraries, science  labs and computers? As long as the situation is like this, the results will not  improve.

QWASE: The issue of libraries in  schools is still a huge problem. We are  not even able to provide enough classrooms. There are schools that need  more classrooms, and the issue of labs  to some people is a luxury. I fully agree that we do not have  libraries, but the challenge is bigger.

SOKOPO: Please explain the practice of condoning (passing pupils who  have failed exams) – a practice teachers say is encouraged by the department.

QWASE: A pupil cannot repeat, or  stay in a phase for a number of years.  The department says a pupil cannot  fail in one phase more than twice. There is a weakness with this because teachers are forced to push the  pupils forward even if they are not  ready.

SOKOPO: During our investigation  we found matric pupils who cannot  even read and write. What is being done to solve this?

QWASE: We have a campaign  called Foundations for Learning in  March 2008 to improve the ability for  learners to write, read and to count  because the study that we conducted  in 2001 put us, as a country, at 30 percent.
We conducted another study in 2007  and that report was released last  year.
It reflected that we had improved by  six percent from 30 percent in 2001 to  36 percent in 2007. This means only 36 percent of  youngsters can read at the appropriate age level or write at the appropriate age level.

SOKOPO: During the investigation,  we found that there were many over-age learners. What is the cause of  this?

QWASE: If the learner is a slow  learner, you find him repeating a  class.
Schools in rural areas are not as  strict as the former Model C schools,  where admission is very strict. In the rural areas they also look at  the social implications of not taking  the learner in. There is also the school nutrition  programme and some pupils come  from very poor families – they are  helped a great deal by the school  nutrition programme.

SOKOPO: Are there age limits?

QWASE: There are limits; it is 18.  When a pupil is in Grade 12, he or she  must be 18 years. But you may find that in Mbizana  almost 50 percent of learners in high  school are over age. Some of them are 22 and are doing  grade 12.

A Nomagqwethekana Comprehensive Technical High School pupil peeps around the corner of the school building when she should be in class. Picture: ALAN EASON

Reckless lifestyles have been cited for the poor academic performance of matriculants in Mbizana. Non-governmental organisations say issues such as teachers’ sexual relationships with school children, drugs, rape and  poverty are some of the factors to blame.
An alarmed Jack Mabhena, the director of  Vusanani  Rape Crisis Centre in Bizana, accused  male teachers of having sex with school children.
“We have found that male teachers are involved in sexual  relationships with female pupils. When this relationship goes  wrong, the  pupils end up unable to cope and cannot face the  teachers in the classrooms,” said Mabhena.
So bad is the situation at some schools that Mabhena said  female teachers sometimes refuse to talk to pupils because  they are fighting over the same male teachers.
Another problem, Mabhena said, was the scourge of rape.
“If a girl is loitering instead of being at school she becomes  vulnerable to rape,” said Mabhena.
Between April 2008 and March 2009, there have been 93 sex  crimes reported to the Bizana Police Station, while 45 were  reported to the Mzamba Police Station just outside Bizana.
LoveLife  manager Toivo Ntsubane  said alcohol consumption was a contributing factor to  many sex crimes.
“The same people you find in taverns are the very same  people you find in classrooms. This is abnormal and should not  be allowed to continue. How do you expect such people to  pass?” he said.
But he was quick to point out that the issues facing the youth  in Bizana were similar across the country.
As a result the Mbizana Municipality  and  government departments have organised campaigns highlighting the abuse of drugs and alcohol by the youth.
“South Africa lacks young leaders to assist young people to  find direction in life,” he said.
Langa Mthembu, director of Vukani Community Training Centre, said his poverty alleviation organisation found some teachers were lazy and not  committed to their work.
“As a result there is a high level of teacher absenteeism…”  said Mthembu.
Vukani Community Training Centre is currently running  agricultural training skills programmes in the area.
“We have found that with poor education in the school it is  very difficult to train young people,” said Mthembu.
Dr Maisha Molepo, an education researcher at the Walter Sisulu University’s Faculty of Education,  has been conducting research to establish the problem behind  poor academic performance in Transkei.
He said he will only be sure of the problem behind the high  failure rate in the Transkei once he concludes the research in January 2010.
“For now I can assume that generally learners do not have  foundation for their education, which is at primary level.
“Teachers at primary level seem to be inadequately trained  and most of them do not even have degrees in education. The  department only workshops Grade 11 and 12 teachers. At  primary level there are no teachers who  specialise in subjects,”  said Molepo. – By BONGANI HANS

Nomalanga Qadi. Picture: ALAN EASON

In the poverty-stricken village of Bulala in Bizana is a  family of four headed by matric pupil Nomalanga Qadi.
Nomalanga is no ordinary matric pupil – she is 25-years-old  and is the sole guardian of her brother Mandla, 15, and sister  Zanele, 13.
She is also a mother to two-year-old Lungani.
Nomalanga takes time off from Nomagqwethekana Comprehensive Technical High School to fetch social grants she needs  to support her family.
Last year she missed a number of days taking taxis to social  workers in Bizana 10km away, spending about R36 of the  family’s only income of R480 from Zanele’s monthly child  support grant.
On October 9, she was granted a further R1280 in foster  grants for her teenage siblings, a grant she had first applied for  in February last year.
“My mother died (in 2008) and since then I have been taking  care of my siblings… Hopefully with this additional money I will  be able to make a better home for us,” said Nomalanga.
Hers is a familiar tale in these parts where education is often  an afterthought.

She has no dreams for the future and has resigned herself to  life in the village where she will raise her son and make sure  her siblings complete high school.
“Some of my teachers motivate me but I am not delusional;  there is just no hope of going to university… where will the  money come from?” she asked.
Nomalanga said that while education is important, money is  a problem. She was failing Maths and Accounting last year and  doubts she can get a bursary.
Nomalanga and her family live in a mud house that consists  of two rooms and no furniture.
The makeshift kitchen has a trunk where the family store  their monthly groceries of about R300 a month, a few dishes and  a table.
Nomalanga has to cook on an open fire she makes on the  kitchen floor; the fire is fuelled by wood she collects from  nearby woods.
In the bedroom, Nomalanga has made a makeshift bed of  bricks and planks.
“We don’t even lock the house because there is nothing to  steal,” she says.
A pupil at Nomagqwethekana in Lukholo village more than  20 kilometres from her home, Nomalanga struggled everyday  to complete her homework, take care of her child and cook and  clean for her family.
When she was just a primary school pupil, her mother gave  her away to a Zulu family in KwaZulu-Natal where she was a  child-minder, despite being a kid herself.
“Living there was a nightmare for me, especially knowing  that my mother gave me away,” she said.
While living with her “new” family in the Port Shepstone  township of Gamalakhe, Nomalanga said she often found  herself being ostracised for speaking her home language of  Mpondo, a Xhosa dialect.

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“The man who had taken me in said he would not pay the  school fees of a Mpondo, so I was forced to work as a maid,” she  said.
Nomalanga then began to work as a maid full-time after she  failed Grade 9; she eventually went looking for her mother  when she was 17.
By then she had already miscarried her first child. Her son  was conceived within months of her moving back home.
Upon arriving at her mother’s house, she discovered her  mom had given birth to her siblings, who had not started  school.
Nomalanga said her mother did not see the benefits of  education.
The younger siblings started Grade 1 three years later than  what they should have.
“She said there was no point in education,” she said of her  mom.
Meanwhile the outlook for Nomalanga remains bleak.
Her younger siblings were failing all their Grade 5 subjects  last year.
And Zanele, the youngest, went to school with barely any  uniform.
“I wish I had a pair of school shoes and a jersey, it’s not nice  to see other children with things while I have nothing,” Zanele  said. – By ASA SOKOPO

Luyanda Khobonga. Picture: ALAN EASON

The dreams of the Khobonga family in Bizana rest on the  shoulders of 23-year-old Luyanda.
The oldest of six children, his mother Nomalungisa Khobonga hopes he will be the family’s ticket out of poverty.
“If he passes and continues to university our life will change  and he will rescue us from poverty. He will even help me to build  my home,” said Nomalungisa.
But her aspirations don’t match her son’s, who doubts he has  even passed matric.
Luyanda, whose subjects included Physics and Maths, said he  has lost hope after he failed most of his tests and exams during  last year. He was also condoned in Grade 9 and Grade 10.
“I passed Grade 11 with very poor results, and I have  no hope of passing my exams,” said Luyanda.
Like others in the district, he blamed the lack of resources  and overcrowded classrooms for his bad performance.
Luyanda’s view of the situation will come as a bitter blow for  his mother.
She is among many parents in Bizana who struggle to  support their large families with little income and many depend  on government grants.
But the 45-year-old mother from Mpheshwa village still invested in her eldest son, even though she only gets  R480 a month in child grants.
Luyanda  wrote his Grade 12 final exams at  Chief Dumile  Senior Secondary School last  year.
As he was preparing for his exams Nomalungisa rented him  a room closer to the school so that he could participate in study  groups.
“I also buy groceries for him to make sure that he does not go  hungry while studying,” said Nomalungisa, whose husband is  hunting for a job in Johannesburg.

Luyanda Khobonga and his mother Nomalungisa. Picture: ALAN EASON

Her wish is that her son becomes a doctor, although he  dreams of being an electrician. Nomalungisa, whose last born  child is only seven years old, is, herself, a school dropout.
She said she left school because her parents believed a girl  should prepare for marriage.
Her second born, 18-year-old Lindile, just  passed Grade 12 last year, also at Chief Dumile. He is also  looking for a job in Johannesburg.
From a distance the Khobonga homestead catches the eye  with three bright pink mud houses.
But get closer and the neglect is evident. Inside, there is  almost nothing of monetary valuable.
The family’s grocery cupboard stands empty for a large part  of the month.
“We often run out of food for weeks and are forced to borrow  money from neighbours,” said Nomalungisa.
Asked for her thoughts on the state of education at her son’s  school, Nomalungisa’s answer was stark.
“An uneducated (person) like me has no say in matters of  education.” – By BONGANI HANS