Established nearly 40 years ago, Ntalantala Secondary School in Ncepheni village, northern KwaZulu-Natal, has faced all the challenges confronting rural schools, including poor infrastructure, understaffing and lacking the resources to teach young minds. But, with a little help from the non-profit organisation Khula Education, it achieved a 100% matric pass rate in 2023.

Khula Education is supported by the David Rattray Foundation and a year ago it provided educator training and supplementary teaching for learners at Ntalantala Secondary.

The organisation has helped to improve education outcomes and economic prospects for rural children and youths since 2007, serving more than 6,450 children and young people and 200 teachers across 21 schools in KwaZulu-Natal each year.

Working in partnership with rural schools and underserved communities, Khula provides holistic early learning at its preschools, supplementary teaching in Maths and English at primary and secondary school levels, training and development for teachers, and support for young people to prepare for and access further education and decent work.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘Discipline, empathy and collaboration’ — KZN school soars from pass rate of 55% to 97%

Acting principal Sizwe Nkwanyana is elated that Ntalantala Secondary School in Ncepheni, northern KwaZulu-Natal, has achieved a 100% pass mark for the first time in its 40 years of existence. (Photo: Khula Education)

The acting principal of Ntalantala, Sizwe Nkwanyana, said, “History has been made and I will never be able to thank Khula Education enough. I keep pinching myself to see if I’m dreaming, but if this is a dream, then I don’t want to wake up.

“Khula’s presence in our school brought so much zeal and enthusiasm to everyone. Both teachers and learners worked extremely hard and we must give credit to Khula teachers for all their commitment, passion and dedication to teaching our learners.”

In 2022, Ntalantala Secondary School’s matric class achieved a 75.9% pass rate. 

Khula said Ntalantala’s Class of 2023 beat the odds despite being situated in the deeply rural uMzinyathi district.

“Ntalantala’s students significantly outperformed the national pass rate of 82.9% for the Class of 2023, a historic year which also marks the highest pass rate in National Senior Certificate history.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: Matric class of 2023 beats the odds with record 82.9% pass rate — Angie Motshekga

On its website, Khula notes that the average household where it works in rural KwaZulu-Natal survives on just R14,600 a year, with 66% of families living in poverty.

The director and CEO of Khula Education, Debbie Heustice, said: “This amazing result is made even more so because it was just one year ago that Khula’s expert teachers started working with Ntalantala Secondary. 

“To see the school’s transformation in such a short space of time is an amazing testament to the dedication and hard work of Khula Education’s staff, and of course to the student and staff body at Ntalantala, who committed to working with us from day one.”

Khula Education’s head of Mathematics, Christopher Magunda, spent many weekends running workshops to help Ntalantala’s learners get up to speed.

“It is a great honour to be part of this historic moment,” he said. “I have seen the learners’ desperation, hard work, sacrifice, passion, perseverance, patience and determination, and it all paid off in the end. The same energy and strong will that students showed will take them far in life.”

The Department of Basic Education’s director-general, Mathanzima Mweli, noted the efforts made by rural schools.

“The good thing about the results is that the rural provinces have worked extremely hard,” he said.

“The gap is closing between the affluent and the poor communities, and that is worth celebrating. The real challenge is to maintain this performance.” DM