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It’s mid-afternoon in the Lowveld and the last of the taxis ferrying pupils home is making its way out of Makhosana Manzini High School.
It is easy to miss the dusty side road that leads to this specialised maths and science school, which is located in the heart of Mkhuhlu village in the Bushbuckridge area off the stretch of road that connects Hazyview to Skukuza.
The school’s reputation for producing outstanding results, however, dwarfs its remote location.
Its pupils come from more than 20 surrounding villages, and even from as far as Hazyview.
Principal Martin Nkuna, in a bespoke black suit and black-rimmed reading glasses, puts the school’s popularity down to two things: the involvement of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the amazing achievements of a pupil named Bonginkosi Mnisi, who has become a legend in these parts.
Back in 2011, the Grade 12 pupil scored perfect marks in maths and science, a feat that not only put his school and village on the map, but took the entire country by surprise.
Nkuna gets animated when he tells the story of his star pupil and how his success intertwines perfectly with the IDC’s involvement with the school.
Having adopted Makhosana Manzini High in 2008 through the department of basic education’s efforts to drum up support for its Dinaledi Schools Project (specialised maths and science schools), the IDC was in the process of building a specialised science lab at the school when Mnisi achieved his incredible feat.
That was how the Bonginkosi Mnisi Science Lab at the school came to be named.
“The IDC was already building a science lab and, as an honour, we felt that, for such outstanding work, we would rather name it after him,” says Nkuna.
Mnisi is now an astrophysics student at the University of Cape Town, but he has left such a rich legacy that, every year, the school’s pupils are motivated to emulate him.
Last year alone, two pupils obtained 92% and 93%, respectively, in their final maths and science exams.
The proud principal counts engineers, doctors, advocates, pharmacists, scientists and educators among the professionals he has produced in his 21 years at the school.
This year, Makhosana Manzini’s alumni approached him with a view to starting a foundation that would support promising pupils who come from needy families, providing them with bursaries to further their education.
“They want to plough back and adopt certain pupils who cannot afford higher education studies,” he says.
Nkuna adds that, without the IDC’s involvement, many of the school’s achievements would have gone unnoticed.
Besides the laboratory, the IDC also built the school’s administrative block, which houses his spacious office and a staff room used by teachers between lessons.
The toilets have been renovated, and damaged windows and doors have been repaired.
Education experts have been sent to the school to help it draft a strategic plan that helps to identify weaknesses and ensure that the school functions at an optimum level.
“The perception of our teachers has changed towards teaching as a profession.
"They have realised that we have a funder who has high expectations of them and they work hard.
"The pupils also work extra hard to achieve good results. The community has taken ownership of the school,” he explains.
But there are still challenges. Because of its excellent reputation, competition for places at the school is high, forcing it to accept more pupils than it can cater for. Makhosana Manzini High has at least 1 303 enrolled pupils who are serviced by 46 dedicated teachers.
That means the pupil-teacher ratio is somewhere between 60 and 70 pupils per teacher.
Nkuna says that, if the school wants to keep to its high standard, more classrooms need to be built to accommodate the growing number of pupils.
Mikateko Baloyi, a 16-year-old Grade 11 pupil, cannot think of a better school to cultivate her growing interest in maths and science.
“The teachers here make maths and science interesting. It is more about the environment that we live in. We are taking that and putting it into our writing,” she says.
Baloyi says the science laboratory has helped her turn what would have been theoretical experiments into practical ones, helping to improve her grades.
She hopes to score a scholarship to the US to study epidemiology. If that fails, she will settle for admission to the University of Cape Town as a microbiology student.
