MIDNIGHT SPECIALS
Poor rural school beats the odds
● While many teenagers were spending the lockdown playing computer games or hanging out at the mall, matric pupils from Dendron Secondary School in rural Limpopo were completing the year’s syllabus by June.
Teaming up with parents, teachers at the school in Mogwadi, 61km north of Polokwane, opened their homes to the pupils, ensuring they were always supervised and assisted with homework.
Trial exams have been tentatively scheduled for September by the Limpopo education department, but internally the school is already giving the 216 grade 12 pupils a “pretrial” exam.
The pupils also wrote a fully fledged June exam, despite the department of basic education scrapping this exam for all matrics because it wanted teachers to focus on completing the curriculum.
The Dendron results are promising too. The matrics achieved a 97% pass in accounting, 96.6% in economics, 90% in physical science and 85.6% in maths. Only 18 of the pupils failed.
Before the lockdown, pupils were at school until 11pm, seven days a week from January until March 18, when schools were closed.
Since June 8 when matrics returned, pupils have been at school until 8.30pm because of the curfew.
This routine now continues at school, in pupils’ homes or in rented accommodation.
At the end of the school day there is a selfstudy period from 3.15pm until 4.30pm. This is followed by time “to refresh” before they return to their studies at 6pm.
About 150 matrics at the school are under the teachers’ eyes day and night because they live in rooms rented to them by those teachers. There are no hostels in the town to accommodate the pupils.
School principal Moloko Matsapola, who also has matrics living in his home, attributed the school’s top results to the discipline that teachers engendered in the pupils.
The accommodation provided to pupils by teachers for a monthly fee of R1,200 per pupil has the blessing of some parents who prefer having their children live with the school staff.
Matsapola said: “There’s discipline when they are staying with us. You are with them at school and with them at home.
“The whole community likes the idea and they are very thankful.”
In its 17-year history, Dendron Secondary has produced 26 medical doctors, two chartered accountants, more than 40 engineers, four actuarial scientists and more than 100 accountants.
Although pupils elsewhere have the option of maths or maths literacy, Dendron insists all pupils study maths only.
Grade 12 pupil Tshepiso Lakgate, 19, enrolled at Dendron Secondary “because the school is renowned for its top results”. He was so desperate to go there that he repeated grade 8 despite having passed it at his previous school.
“The grade 9 class at Dendron was full and there was a space in a grade 8 class, so I repeated grade 8,” he said.
“The extra hours in the evening gave us enough time to complete the syllabus. I don’t mind coming to school until 11pm. We become more disciplined because teachers are supervising us at home.”
Another matric pupil, Kopano Lephalala, 16, said teachers were not only concerned about completing the syllabus “but they also make sure that you understand”.
“It encourages us to put more effort into our studies.”
Lephalala, who has set her sights on studying actuarial science next year, achieved a 96% average in her seven subjects in the school’s June exams.
Nono Mokoatedi, 18, who returned from the US on an exchange programme in May and started attending classes only from June 8, obtained five distinctions in the June exams. “Coming to school for those long hours really helps us because then we get to catch up.”
Determined to produce a 100% matric pass rate at the end of the year, all of the school’s 50 teachers were roped in to teach the 216 matrics, who are divided into 11 classes.
Deputy principal Kwena Mokwatedi said two-hour lessons in content subjects such as maths, physical science, accounting and economics were taught over weekends.
“We test and then do remedial work and then reteach if we feel learners haven’t understood something.”
Mokwatedi, who has been a teacher for 26 years, said despite the department advising schools not to give a mid-year exam, the school did so.
“We believe that teaching without assessment is incomplete. We teach, we assess, because finishing the syllabus and having learners mastering what you have taught are two different things.”
He said that parents were also involved in cases where pupils were performing poorly.
Matome Lamola, a member of the school’s governing body, said the parents were grateful for the sacrifices made by the teachers.
“They are holding evening and weekend classes voluntarily. We are very humbled to have educators like this.”