Resources help schools succeed, but as pupils head back into the classroom some show that hard work and motivation can beat adversity. Defying the odds in KZNAlong a dirt road in Dukuza village near Bergville in central KwaZulu-Natal stands a run-down school with broken windows, paint peeling from the walls and no running water.The science lab at Ukhahlamba High School has no chemicals or equipment and pupils have to use pit latrines or portable toilets. They often have to walk to the nearby boreholes to fetch water.The school has just 13 teachers and about 450 pupils.But it has achieved a 100% matric pass rate for seven years in a row.When the Sunday Times visited on Wednesday for the start of the new school year, the pupils were raring to go.Matric history teacher Thys Mokoena, who has been at the school since 2007, the last year that the school failed to get 100%, said: "There is commitment from the teachers, from the principal, from the parents and from the learners themselves. Our secret is hard work."Ukhahlamba has become one of the best and most consistent schools in uThukela - a district where just 6778 of the 11095 matrics last year passed their exams.Of the 22 matrics who wrote in 2015 at the school, 19 obtained bachelor passes, and three diploma passes."We don't just want passes, we want quality passes. That is what we strive for," said Mokoena.full_story_image_hleft1Teachers not into teaching at NtsizwaBroken window panes and desks, a leaking roof and a classroom held together by cow dung proved to be no obstacle for Tukiso Pakkies.The Ntsizwa Senior Secondary School pupil was determined to pass matric.story_article_right1Pakkies, 18, and Philasande Matshalilanga defied the odds to emerge as the only two pupils out of 97 who passed matric at the Eastern Cape school last year.The school in Mount Ayliff is the worst performing in the country, attaining a pass rate of only 2.2%.However, Pakkies would like to forget his matric year because even though he passed matric with a D symbol, his overall results were poor, particularly in mathematics.He blames the teachers, saying teaching was almost nonexistent and that there was never a day when the school had a full complement of teachers."There usually were few teachers at the school. And when it rained the teachers would not come at all as they say their cars would not be able to drive on the muddy road to school," said Pakkies.This contributed to lawlessness as pupils did as they pleased.The principal, Luthando Mgandela, fled the school in August last year after a violent confrontation with pupils over the failure to issue June reports.The Grade 12s only registered late in September for the exams and pupils could not apply to any tertiary institutions as they did not have their June reports.full_story_image_hleft2No mentors at homeIt's 9am on the first day of the new academic year at one of the worst-performing schools in South Africa.An hour after the first classes should have begun, most pupils at Siyaphakama Senior Secondary in the Eastern Cape are still drifting into the dusty yard.Siyaphakama, about 60km from Queenstown in Sterkstroom's Masakhe township, is one of 41 schools - half are in the same province - where less than 40% of Grade 12s have passed matric in the past five years. The school is the only state-of-the-art infrastructure in the township. It is meant to be a beacon of hope in the province with the worst school performance.For Vuyisile Haga, who has been acting principal for six years, last year's 17.4% matric pass rate was confirmation of a slump that had set in after the relatively heady 26.7% by the Class of 2013. In 2014 it was 17.7%."The majority of our learners here are either orphans or their parents work in Cape Town and Johannesburg. They are vulnerable to bad influences. We are asking for a social worker who will permanently focus on the school. It is difficult to teach an unhappy child who does not have mentors at home."Ayabonga Stemele and Loyiso Rhajana, both 18, admit they failed last year but they were "progressed to the next grade. Most learners in my class were progressed."full_story_image_hleft3Yellow roses, golden ratioSixty-Three yellow roses lie on a table at the front of Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof's first assembly of the year.One by one, the 63 matrics who scored above 80% in last year's matric exams arrive on stage to collect their blooms (the Stellenbosch school of 700 pupils was founded in 1874 to produce "flowers of the nation") and silver necklaces.story_article_right2It is the first day of a new year at one of South Africa's leading government schools. Rows of perfectly and identically dressed girls stand to attention singing Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.After assembly, mothers from the "Boov" (the Afrikaans acronym for the Bloemhof parent teacher association) wearing aprons with a golden embroidered B serve iced tea and snacks to teachers and guests celebrating the fact that all 140 pupils who wrote matric last year passed. (This surprised no one; it has been that way for at least four decades.)Last year's Dux, or top pupil, Marina Smuts, who plans to study actuarial science at Stellenbosch University, said the school provided "a learning environment where everyone has the necessary opportunity to perform".The great-grand-niece of statesman Jan Smuts added: "I worked hard but I enjoyed my matric year and I used all of the opportunities that I was presented with. But in the end it came down to my friends and teachers who supported me."Principal Wilna van Heerden said the Department of Basic Education provided the school with 19 teachers and the governing body funded a further 21 from annual fees of R24250 per girl. Bloemhof has a ratio of one teacher for every 18 pupils, well ahead of the national government school average of 32.Officials crack down on 'school of cheats'Officials will camp out at South Africa's worst school for cheating this week after angry parents and community members stormed it.KwaZulu-Natal department of education spokesman Muzi Mahlambi said officials would be posted at Mpikayizekanye Secondary School in Tugela Ferry from tomorrow. The school, in the rural KwaMbono area, gained notoriety last year when 167 of its matrics were said to be involved in cheating at exams.story_article_right3Parents stormed the school during the scandal and tried to oust principal Lungi Shange and her deputy, John Mpulo. They were thwarted by the education department's intervention.When school resumed on Wednesday, parents and community members again stormed it in another attempt to drive out senior management. This was after one matriculant out of 70 passed in 2015.Mahlambi said the department's intervention was not prompted by the parents' revolt but by an array of problems facing the school."That they want to remove the teachers has not come to our attention. We will be visiting the school ... and we are going to camp there to ensure we have resolved its challenges."Problems included teaching, governance, management and academic matters.The school governing body's acting chairman, known only as Shezi, was not available when the Sunday Times visited the school this week. Shange and Mpulo refused to answer questions, citing protocol...