MAGOZA Secondary School pupils at Dan village outside Tzaneen in Limpopo were given awards at the weekend for their outstanding academic achievements.

Their diligent work has led to the school taking top position in the provincial education department's Nkowankowa circuit results among the Grade 12 classes.

The school was known as a hiding place for criminal elements with knives, firearms and drugs.

For 2010 the school managed a paltry 42% matric pass rate, but for 2011, this shot up to 79.54%.

The top achievers in various categories were given trophies, portable personal computers, calculators, uniforms and certificates.

The school's principal, Godfrey Rikhotso, said: "We established the award programme to bring back the culture of learning and improve the standard of education at our school.

"The year-end results have improved drastically since the awards programme was started.

"I want to restore the trust with the parents who took away their kids to private schools because they saw no need to bring them here after we produced bad results in 2010. I want them to take their kids back to Magoza again."

Pupil Gift Goveni said: "Our school will never be the same again and we are very gratefully after our school has been recognised about our good work."