Some pupils triumph in matric against all odds, but for others the hurdles to success prove too high The high school in Ntsizwa village near Mount Ayliff produced two matric passes.But in this rural Eastern Cape village - where everyone knows everybody else - nobody knows who those two children are.That's because none of the 91 children who wrote matric at Ntsizwa Senior Secondary School last year had received their official results yet this week.Acting principal Bulelwa Nomkhonwana said on Friday that she did not have transport to send them their results - and most of them are too poor to make the 50km trip to the local education district office to collect them.story_article_left1Ntsizwa's school has emerged as the worst-performing school in South Africa - its 2.2% pass rate last year represents its poorest matric result since 2011.Except for a 34.6% pass rate in 2013, over the past five years the school has failed to achieve better than 14%.During a visit to the school this week, Sunday Times reporters found that the grounds and classrooms had been taken over by cattle and sheep. The mud-and-wattle building is crumbling, and many doors and windows are broken. Other aspects of the school's malaise include:A complement of just eight teachers for 200 pupils in Grades 10, 11 and 12 last year;The school governing body could not hire an extra teacher because it could afford to pay only R2000 a month, but he demanded R5000; andThe principal fled the village in August last year after a clash with the community.Nestled at top of Ntsizwa village near the KwaZulu-Natal border, the school is just half an hour's drive from the N2 freeway. But the rugged gravel road leading to it makes it appear cut off from the world.A new brick block, built in 2006, has a broken satellite dish and solar panel, a broken tap and two water tanks lying forlornly on the ground.The yard is littered with broken desks and the classrooms look as if they have long been abandoned.Ntandazo Zimase, the chairman of the school governing body, said this week that they were "very disappointed" with the matric results. " The whole community is shocked and this means this area will not produce any gems unless the situation turns around," he saidmini_story_image_vleft1He said the school's principal, Luthando Mgandela, had fled after being injured in a row with pupils over his failure to release their June reports.Mgandela had to go to hospital after being hit on the head during the confrontation, and never returned to the village."We have tried all we could to assist and have been begging the department to send him back to the school. We went to see him and other teachers to apologise on behalf of the children, but he has refused to come back," said Zimase.One pupil at the school, Abongile Nomatshila, 19, said she knew she had failed because she checked the local newspaper and her exam number was not listed. She had hoped to go to university, she said.Ntsizwa resident Onelia Mbambisa said village children had been "abandoned" when the principal left. "He never had the children's best interests at heart. He also failed the community that had placed a huge trust in him. This is a school that had great potential."Mount Frere district education director Malusi Sobikela said it was impossible to persuade Mgandela to return because he feared for his life.Eastern Cape education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima, asked about the school's record, said the department had sent a team to the school last year to assess the situation. He did not know what the outcome was.Mgandela could not be reached for comment.olifantn@sundaytimes.co.za..