Qhayiya Secondary School (Hermanus)

Qhayiya Secondary in Hermanus, where the whales come to watch the learners try to get a teacher's attention. Two thousand and eighty six kids, sixty nine teachers, thirty learners per class. Broe, that is not a classroom, that is a taxi rank with a whiteboard. The teacher is not teaching, the teacher is surviving. You want help with your maths homework? Take a number, grab a chair, and come back after load shedding. But listen, no fees. Zero rands. Absolutely nothing. Which means the school cannot even blame you for not paying attention because you did not pay for anything. The government said "here is your school, here is Hermanus, here is the wind off the sea," and just left. The learners are out here getting an education between the whale watching tourists and the wine farms, which is honestly a very confusing place to be a teenager. Now that matric pass rate though. Eighty four point nine percent. With thirty kids per teacher, no fees, and the Atlantic Ocean blowing everyone sideways. That is actually not a small thing. That is teachers working like they personally owe the WCED something, and kids grinding while the rich school down the road is still busy deciding on a new school blazer colour. Overall verdict: Qhayiya is basically running a small city disguised as a high school, with almost no resources and somehow still getting it done, respect where it is due.