Despite 25 years of democracy, many rural schools in South Africa remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and underperformance, with quality education still a distant dream for countless learners. Schools like Dithothwaneng Secondary School in the Sekhukhune District of Limpopo face a host of challenges unique to rural environments, hindering effective teaching and learning. These challenges arise from both internal school structures and external forces, including limited support from education authorities and strained local communities. Poor infrastructure, long travel distances to school, and the overall hardships of rural life further intensify the problem.
 Poverty remains a major obstacle, with many African communities deeply affected by socio-economic hardships. While South Africa fares slightly better than some of its neighbors, the impact of poverty on education cannot be ignored. In schools like Dithothwaneng Secondary, parental involvement is often low as many parents grapple with unemployment and focus on survival rather than school participation. Without strong parental support, learners lack the motivation and home environment needed to excel academically.
 Adding to this challenge is the chronic issue of insufficient state funding, which leaves schools unable to operate effectively. Many rural schools lack essential resources such as textbooks, science lab equipment, and technology, key tools necessary for quality learning. Teachers often find themselves improvising lessons without the materials they need to deliver proper education.
 Overcrowded classrooms further compound the situation. In some rural schools, a single teacher may be responsible for educating more than 100 learners at once. This overwhelming burden creates a chaotic learning environment, making it nearly impossible to provide individual attention or maintain academic standards.
 Teaching in rural schools presents unique challenges. Lack of support, resources, and parental involvement makes it difficult to achieve good results.
 Despite various government policies and interventions over the years, progress in improving educational standards and learner performance in rural areas has been slow. The gap between rural and urban education continues to grow, leaving many rural learners disadvantaged in an increasingly competitive world.
 For learners at schools like Dithothwaneng Secondary, the right to quality education remains elusive. Experts believe that addressing these barriers requires a multi-faceted approach, including increased government funding, improved infrastructure, and greater involvement from communities and education stakeholders.
 Until such measures are implemented, rural schools will face significant challenges, and the vision of providing equal education for all will remain unfulfilled. 

Born in Mphanama village, Sekhukhune, Limpopo Province South Africa, I am an English teacher at Dithothwaneng Secondary School in the village. After finishing grade 12, I did not have money to go to college or University as my parents were unemployed. I looked after my father’s cattle in the hope of one day attending university to study and become a qualified teacher. Achieving a goal takes courage, commitment, dedication, focus, and resilience. These values made me wait for 11 full years after completing grade 12 to register for a bachelor’s degree in education at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. I started working at the age of 35 as a qualified educator, 15 years after completing grade 12 at Makelepeng Secondary School in Mphanama Village. It also took me seven full years of applying for the Global Teacher Prize to become a Top 50 finalist. Despite financial challenges, I started a free tutoring program that has since helped many students become qualified professionals.
 The journey began when I appreciated the need for development in rural communities in South Africa, and I took it upon myself to become an agent of change, especially in Girl child education, pursuing activities in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 sustainable development agenda, tackling negative attitudes and cultural practices which prevents female participation in education as fit only for domestic chores on the road to becoming wives and mothers. I undertook the preference of girls to overcome social barriers such as patriarchy. In rural communities’ girls drop out of school due to issues related to teenage pregnancy and lack of sanitary towels. I have therefore undertaken an initiative of campaigning for the donation of sanitary towels for girls to restore their dignity and confidence. I am also running enrichment classes and tutoring at my village and in Mokopane every Saturday to bridge the gap of inequality between a rural learner and urban learners. The subjects and activities I am offering are open for boys and girls, but I am encouraging girls to do activities traditionally meant for boys such as soccer and performing arts where I have managed to produce ladies’ soccer national team players and professional soccer players today. I increase the support for women and girls in education, and I strongly believe that we can only achieve quality public education by addressing the importance of Gender Equality in education.
 Despite the lack of infrastructure development, and the inequalities that exist within the education fraternity between the “Haves” and “the have-nots”.  I am using my technology resources in the classroom to teach and to connect with teachers from around the world. I am a passionate teacher who is integrating technology tools and applications in teaching and learning. I have introduced classroom Skype where I engage learners, mostly girls with their counterparts globally. I am inviting guests through Skype to inspire learners to put education first and secure a better future through it. This enables those who are from poor families to be on the same level as those who are from advantaged backgrounds. This also assists us in fighting inequality and thus improves their confidence. I have influenced teachers in my country to use technology and connect with teachers from around the world. I am hosting and organizing educational seminars at the community level, school, national, and international levels to empower educators on several issues that affect us daily and on how to integrate ICT into learning and teaching. 
 Apart from ICT integration, I am donating sanitary towels, and school uniform to the indigent learners to restore their dignity and confidence. The idea is to reduce the potential for bullying and create a sense of equality and unity between the learners. I have established a greening project to cultivate empathy wherein girls are at the forefront to augment learners’ knowledge of food production and stimulate the desire to create home gardens to dispel hunger and poverty in rural areas. 
 Concerning the Context and challenges, I am from a rural Village where the majority of community members still see no value in education. Most of the young people are school dropouts and constitute a higher number of the unskilled and unemployed. We are facing several issues that are relative to psycho-socio-economic challenges such as poverty, unemployment, underdevelopment and gender stereotypes, and lack of technological resources such as internet cafés, no library, and hospitals. People travel long distances to school and over 30 Km to the nearest hospital. 
 I have adopted Multi-Sensory Learning and Project Based Learning Approaches since they are cross-disciplinary approaches that allow interclass and international collaboration. These two learning approaches assist my learners in acquiring 21st-century learning skills such as communication, critical thinking, collaboration, technological skills, and knowledge building. I am pioneering a teaching-learning methodology that allows national and international Collaboration.