HoëRskool Lydenburg (Mashishing)

Hoërskool Lydenburg in Mashishing, Mpumalanga. First of all, the town could not even keep its original name and neither could the school, so already we are off to a confusing start. You are telling me 1107 learners and only 51 teachers? That is basically one teacher per small suburb. Every period must feel like a taxi rank where everyone piles in and the driver just hopes for the best. Twenty-two kids per teacher, jy weet hoe is dit, that poor educator is not teaching, they are just crowd control with a whiteboard marker. But listen, one hundred percent matric pass rate. ONE HUNDRED. Either this school is genuinely exceptional or someone in Mpumalanga has a very creative relationship with the data, and either way we have to respect the audacity. That is a bolder claim than any school description I have ever read. The description itself is so dry it makes the Lowveld in August look hydrated. "Delivers the National Senior Certificate curriculum within the CAPS framework." Wow. Riveting stuff. No boarding facilities either, so at least you get to go home and process the trauma every evening. No swimming pool mentioned, no fancy campus boasting, just 1107 kids, 51 teachers, and apparently a 100% pass rate in Mashishing. That is either the most underrated school in South Africa or the most optimistic spreadsheet in Mpumalanga. Overall verdict: Looks like a no-nonsense school that actually gets results, which is more than we can say for half the fancy schools with their Latin mottos and R50 000 fees.