Principal transforms SA’s second worst school into one of its best

Mbuso Nwayila

After just a year in office, the principal of Charles Mathonsi Secondary School has managed to transform it from one of the worst schools in the country to one of the best.

In 2020 the school was rated the second lowest performing school in the whole of South Africa in mathematics, with an 8.3% pass rate and a low 25% pass rate in physical science.

With the help of the new principal Rebotile Lesele, the class of 2021 managed to pull their socks up to achieve a 64.9% pass rate in mathematics and an impressive 78.6% pass rate in physical science.

The school from Mokgolobotho outside Tzaneen now falls into the Top 5 of the Best Performing Schools in the Nkowankowa Circuit, moving from an overall pass rate of 34.5% in 2020 to 70.9% in 2021.

The bad results last year led to a visit last April from the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga.

During the visit, Lesele promised Minister Motshekga that she would fight tooth and nail to see the reputation of the school transformed.

Besides introducing study classes, she also implemented a reward strategy, where she sought out sponsors to give out cash prizes to the best performing learners, which has proven to work.

The top learner received an R8, 000 cash prize and two other star students were given a bursary to pay for their first year of university.

Lesele added that she is overjoyed because in the end the attitude of the learners changed and they started taking their studies seriously.

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