Somcuba Primary School (Kanyamazane)

Somcuba Primary School in Kanyamazane, Mpumalanga. One teacher. Thirty eight and a half kids. Let that sink in. That half a kid is probably the one sitting on the floor because there are no more chairs. With 1462 learners and only 38 teachers, this school is not a school, it is a migration. Every morning must look like the N4 taxi rank on a Monday, just children, everywhere, as far as the eye can see, and one exhausted teacher at the front pretending she can see the back row. Thirty eight point five to one. Bra, that teacher is not teaching, she is hosting a festival. You think load shedding is rough? Try marking 38 books by candlelight knowing you have 1462 of them. The poor educator does not even have a name anymore, they are just known as "that one teacher" and also "that other one teacher" and also "are there any more teachers, please." Kanyamazane, Mpumalanga, doing the most with the least and somehow still showing up every day. That is actually not nothing. These kids are coming through a system that is genuinely stacked against them and they are still rocking up, which takes more guts than half the private schools in Sandton will ever know. Overall verdict: Somcuba is basically running a small city with the staff of a tuck shop, but the fact that over 1400 kids still come through those gates every morning means something real is happening there.