The high-riding rural Thengwe Secondary School, which is the latest addition to the elite Club 100, has always been a home of achievers.

It came as no surprise when they were this year added to the elite Club 100 by the MEC of Education, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi.

Club 100 was launched in 2006 by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, and the former Deputy-President of the republic, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, in a bid to encourage learners and educators to work hard and to excel in maths and science subjects. To qualify to be a member of the club, a school should have a minimum number of 100 learners who pass maths and science at the higher grade.

Mbilwi Secondary School has been the only Limpopo school which qualified to be a member in 2007, after 117 of their 142 learners passed maths and science at the higher grade that year. Recently, Thengwe, Harry Oppenheimer and Tshivhase High Schools joined Mbilwi. The latest addition will mean that Limpopo is represented by four schools in the elite club. Ironically, the three schools that qualified are rural schools which lack facilities.

Welcoming the three schools to the elite club, Limpopo education MEC Aaron Motsoaledi called on educators and learners to work hard in order to have more and more schools admitted to the club. Motsoaledi said the admission to the club would also mean improved results each year as schools would be competing for a place in the club. He said it was worrying to find that the department had to import educators from neighbouring countries.

"With all the infrastructure and equipment at our disposal, it is a shame to find that we have to look elsewhere to fill positions that were supposed to be filled by local people," he said. Motsoaledi further said neighbouring countries did not have the classes and equipment that are readily available in this country.” Learners have to go to school in shifts in our neighbouring countries because of a shortage of classrooms, but they still do exceptionally well,” he said.

Mr Nkhangweni Nemudzivhadi, principal of Thengwe Secondary School, which is one of the newly admitted schools, was over the moon.

"This is the pinnacle of our career as educators. We feel very greatly motivated and this clearly shows that we are contributing positively to our communities,” he said. Nemudzivhadi said there was no muti that could help any learner achieve the best results, but learners and educators had to sweat it out in order to reap the rewards at the end of the year. "It is only through hard work, dedication and commitment from educators and learners that the best results can be achieved," he said. He said the school had been achieving ever since it was started in 1965. He attributed their successes to team work, coupled with hard work and determination.

The deputy principal of the school, Ms Tshilidzi Madanda, could not hide her excitement. "This is a great achievement. We had hoped to be in the club 50, but what happened exceeded our wildest expectations," she said. She said they missed admission to the club by only a whisker last year.

The magic-making educator, the humble Mr Freddy Marubini, said he was not motivated by greed as they do not get incentives for achieving outstanding results. “We do not get paid extra for our achievements but we stay at school after the normal schooling for the sake of our learners,” he said. He said teaching was a calling to him and it was for the love of his learners that he went an extra mile in assisting all the learners to pass. “I have come to realize that all could pass mathematics as long as they concentrate on the areas they understand best and fight to get a pass mark. Learners would waste their time on something that they knew they would never understand, instead of using their time profitably on questions they understood. This caused them to fail. He said he had grouped his learners according to how they performed in class and he gave them different attention. “This puts them in a good position to understand better,” he said. Marubini said his long-term dream was to produce a 100% pass rate in mathematics this year. He thanked his principal and his colleagues for being supportive of his dream. “We could not have achieved this much if it were not for the cooperation and unity that we have here at school,” added Marubini.

Thengwe had 260 learners registered for mathematics and maths literacy. Out of the 223 who wrote mathematics, 195 passed with 26 distinctions.  A total of 37 learners wrote maths literacy. Thengwe achieved a 99,6% overall pass rate this year.

Meanwhile, Limpopo recorded another impressive maths and science result this year. Vhembe still outclassed other districts in terms of learner passes, although they were one behind Capricorn in the number of learners who got 100% in mathematics.
A total of 84 614 learners wrote matric in 2008 in the Limpopo Province and 45 958 out of the total number passed. The province got an aggregate of 54.3% pass that was described by many as a disaster whilst the department said it was a good start in the all-new curriculum.