Leseding Primary (Stilfontein)

Leseding Primary in Khuma, Stilfontein. Right, so the name "Leseding" means "place of light" in Sesotho, which is beautiful and poetic, except there are 713 kids and only 16 teachers, so the only light anyone is seeing is the one at the end of a very long, very crowded tunnel. Forty-four kids to one teacher. Forty-four. That is not a classroom, that is a taxi rank with a blackboard. The teacher is not teaching, they are managing a small nation. Sixteen educators for over 700 learners in Stilfontein, which is already doing its best out there in the North West. That ratio is so bad that by the time the teacher gets to your desk for help, you have already figured it out yourself, given up, gotten married, and had kids of your own. The government looked at this school and said "ja, that looks fine" and then went for lunch. But here is the thing, the kids coming out of Leseding are built different. When you have survived a 44:1 ratio in a public school in Khuma, you are basically unbreakable. Matric, varsity, life, none of it will ever be as chaotic as your Grade 4 class was on a Friday afternoon with a substitute teacher. Overall verdict: Criminally under-resourced and wildly overcrowded, but if your kid survives this place, they can survive anything South Africa throws at them, and this country throws a lot.