Stratford Primary School (City Of Cape Town)

Stratford Primary on the Cape Flats, where one teacher looks up and sees 34 kids staring back at them like a taxi that was supposed to take 15 but somehow fits the whole neighbourhood. Thirty-three point eight to one, broe. That is not a classroom ratio, that is a stadium. Your teacher was not teaching, your teacher was crowd controlling. By the time she got to your row for the test, the first row had already graduated. 1455 learners at a primary school. A PRIMARY school. That is not a school, that is a small city. You did not go to school, you went to a municipality. Getting from the tuck shop back to your class was a whole commute. Some kids probably got lost in Grade 3 and only surfaced in Grade 7. The Cape Flats wind alone must have blown half the Grade Rs clean into another street before first break. And listen, the teachers here are not underpaid, they are UNDER-STAFFED. Forty-three educators for 1455 children is basically one teacher per small suburb. These people are not on a salary, they deserve a medal, a therapist, and probably their own reality show. You survived this place? Honestly, that is an achievement on its own. Overall verdict: Stratford Primary is basically the Springbok scrum of Cape Town schools, completely overwhelming, somehow still functioning, and tougher than it has any right to be.