The Charles Duna Primary is the biggest of 12 primary schools in the New Brighton township of Port Elizabeth. More than 1,000 pupils aged five to 14 attend the school.
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Sume Nombulelo (right) is the headmistress. Despite her strictness, she is like a second mother for many of the pupils who come from a poor background.
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"We need at least 14 additional teachers. With an average of 45 pupils the classes are much too big. Schools in white neighbourhoods have half as many pupils," she says.
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Many parents can't afford the annual school fee of ZAR40 (SFr6), and Nombulelo does not insist they pay.
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The school offers special courses for pupils with reading and writing problems. It is very difficult to care for them in big classes.
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The books and other materials are only available three months after the beginning of the school term. "None of the township schools has a proper library. The books we use are donations from England," says Nombulelo.
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IT equipment has to be kept under lock to prevent acts of vandalism. All the computers are private donations from England and Germany.
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The school has had electricity only since 2005, but many toilets and showers had to be closed because the plumbing system broke down. Nombulelo says the education ministry and local authorities are locked in a fight over responsibility.
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The outside taps are under constant surveillance to avoid water being wasted.
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The school has its own garden and offers a meal at midday. "For some pupils this is the only time they get something to eat," says headmistress Nombulelo.
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Most of the food supplies come from England and Germany. Too often NGOs have to stand in for local authorities in South Africa's townships.
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One of the main problems of schools in townships is the high level of absenteeism among the teaching staff who earn low salaries.
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"More than 90 per cent of the children get a basic education. Most of them drop out at secondary level. Many parents can't afford the annual fee of ZAR500 (SFr75). Expenses for transport and school stationery can also be an obstacle," says Nombulelo.
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"Sport is crucial for the psychological development of the children in a social environment. Every morning before classes begin the pupils have to do several laps around the sports field. But we only have three PE teachers for the 1,000 pupils. So the help of NGOs in this area too is very important to us," says Nombulo.
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The apartheid system has marked South Africa's education scheme.
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Journalist and deputy head of the swissinfo.ch editorial group for German, French and Italian. Earlier, worked for Teletext and Switzerland’s French-language national broadcaster.
Officially South Africa introduced a nationwide education system in 1995. In reality huge differences have remained between schools in white and black neighbourhoods.
swissinfo visited the Charles Duna Primary school in an area of Port Elizabeth where the black population was forced to settle during apartheid. (photos and text: Samuel Jaberg, translated from French)
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