In July 2004 we walked into our grade 11 classroom to hear that our mathematics teacher had been involved in a car crash. We did not have a maths teacher for three months following that tragic incident.

Feeling hopeless, many of my classmates gave up on the idea of passing the subject that year. It was then, at the age of 17, that I decided to teach my fellow classmates. Those of us who persevered passed that year despite our difficulties...