South Africa's education and finance ministers are being taken to court over poor standards at state schools. The BBC's Karen Allen investigates the education crisis and why some parents in Eastern Cape province are opting to send their children to private schools despite the cost.
"We are not a flashy family - I'm just an ordinary kid," says Simanye Zondani, 17, as he pores over his maths homework in the subdued light of his home.
Since his parents died, his aunt has given up her smart "bachelorette" flat in Queenstown and opted instead for a house in the township.
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We used to have good results, but we are short of maths teachers [and] science teachers”
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Khumzi Madikane
Head teacher at Nonkqubela Secondary
It means she can now just about afford the £700 ($1,100) to send her nephew to private school.
Five thousand children, most of them from black families on modest incomes, are switching to independent schools annually.
The quality varies, but in Gauteng province alone, South Africa's economic hub, more than 100 new schools have applied for registration in the past year.
It is a response to a sense of failure in the state sector, argues Peter Bosman, the principal of Getahead High School, the low-cost private school which Simanye attends.
"Parents want consistency and quality," he says - not with a sense of schadenfreude but resignation.