Growing up in a village of Mount Frere, Eastern Cape, Abonga Mdze, who is one of the youngest school principals in the country, knew that education was his only way out of poverty. 

This is the same reason the 29-year-old principal at Ngqwala Senior Secondary School pushed his pupils to achieve a matric pass rate of 88.6%, a huge improvement from the 28% the school achieved in 2018. ..