The Connie Minchin Primary School (Mmabatho)

Connie Minchin Primary in Mmabatho, North West. Not Cape Town, not Joburg, not even Polokwane. Mmabatho. Which is brave, honestly. The school has 1231 learners and 36 teachers, which works out to one teacher for every 34 kids. Thirty four. That is not a classroom, that is a taxi rank with a whiteboard. The teacher is not teaching, she is surviving. She woke up, saw 34 faces staring at her, and immediately started counting the days to December. Thirty six teachers for over twelve hundred children means if you raise your hand with a question, statistically you will finish primary school before that teacher gets to you. Some of those kids probably graduated, had children of their own, and those children are also still waiting for help with their long division. The ratio is so bad that load shedding is actually a relief because at least in the dark nobody can see you crying at your desk. And then the name. The Connie Minchin Primary School. Connie Minchin. That sounds like the name of someone who complained to the principal once and they named the school after her just to get her to stop. Somewhere in Montshioa there is a plaque and Connie is looking at it like she won something. She did not win, Connie. There are 34 children per teacher. Overall verdict: Connie Minchin Primary is basically a stadium that accidentally became a school, but those kids come out tougher than anyone from a school with a waiting list.