South Africa: Hitting the book

July marks winter break for South African students. But in the middle of Orange Farm, an informal settlement about an hour south of Johannesburg that is known for its violent crime and back-breaking poverty, the lights stayed on at Leshata Secondary long after other schools had gone on holiday. On the world's poorest continent, official debates about education reform invariably pivot around money. But as the Association for the Development of Education in Africa has argued, chalk boards are only as useful as the people who write on them are qualified.