Bokgoni Technical Secondary School was once named among the worst performing schools in Gauteng but that is all in the past now.

The school in Atteridgeville in Tshwane has turned the corner achieving a 100% matric pass rate for the first time in its 35-year-old history.

Yesterday the Gauteng education department announced the school as the top performing township school, and also the top school in the secondary school improvement programme in the province.

Principal George Sono said the school had improved immensely from the 32% pass rate it achieved in 2016.

"When I joined the school in 2017, it was labelled as the worst school and pupils were demoralised as they were called slow learners.

"I had to show them that they were actually lucky to be in a technical school and I introduced career exhibitions to attract their attention to different skills out there.

"In the same year, we saw an improvement in our matric results and achieved a 67% which was followed by a 98% in 2018 and 100% in 2019," he said.

Bokgoni, interestingly, is Sotho for ability or skill.

Sono said one of the factors that helped improve the performance was the involvement of the school management team in the school activities.

"Before, the school management team was not active in monitoring educators to see whether they are doing their work. No one bothered about the shortage of textbooks, but these days the management team is very involved in the school activities.

"We have issues every week to discuss issues affecting the school and we always analyse our results even if they are from class tests to see as to where our pupils needs assistance," Sono said.

He said they are proud that they focus more on skills development.

"Our areas of focus are electrical, civil and mechanical engineering. A learner who went to our school can be able to do something for themselves. They are able to do electrical wiring, welding, brick laying and carpentry."

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said he was proud that Bokgoni also attained a 65% bachelor passes.

"When the school was not performing we had to take tough decisions.

"We went to the principal of the school and told him 'It's either us or you. We can't have each other'.

"The principal agreed to leave on early pension. We appointed a new principal, who was dynamic, understanding and open-minded," Lesufi said.