The responses gathered from these educators are either supportive or unsupportive as indicated below:
The following is the unsupportive responses of educators from Zimbabwe towards OVC:
OVC are problematic. As many attend school in torn uniform and very dirty and other children are cruel to them. Really, they do not come with proper care, and even the little ones will come without a snack. The other children will leave them;
you can see them sitting alone during the school break, just alone. In my class, I do not know what to do with them! They are really a problem, these children…I gave them an assignment in drawing their families. This little one… just
cries…Now what am I supposed to do? We have no training and these classes are
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too full of children. I do not know what to do with them. (Kendall and O’Gara , 2007).
According to the educators’ experiences and responses, it is evident that teachers’ training to deal with the emotional and psychosocial needs of these learners is a great deal of their concern (Kendall and O’Gara, 2007). Kendall and O’Gara demonstrate that it is also evident that some of the teachers allow grieving learners to drop out of school because they claim to have no skills and strategies to deal with them in the classroom as well as school yard. (Kendall & O’Gara 2007) further point out that “vulnerable children who did attend, experienced the school as an institution that allowed them to be labeled and stigmatised. These educators regard the school as an institution incapable of addressing their needs.
Furthermore, teachers claim that when attending to these learners who have social problems, a lot of time is wasted. As a result time allocated for teaching is utilized unprofitably. Additionally, some of the teachers punish the orphaned learners for not doing homework without taking any initiative to establish the reason. A number of these learners reported that they were sent away from school if they had no pens as well as books (Robson and Sylvesterk, 2007). Robson and Sylvesterk further explain that some teachers describe orphans as badly dressed, psychologically and emotionally traumatised due to their parents’ death. However, on the contrary, some teachers feel that there is a need to attend to the needs of these orphaned learners.
Educators’ Supportive responses towards AIDS orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) Generally, teachers are sympathetic towards OVC. They want to help children. (Werk’s report 2004) indicates this:
“Many of the teachers were found to be sympathetic to the OVC and at times contribute towards their education. Some teachers said that at times they have to use their own money to help some of the poor pupils buy items such as exercise books when they get filled up. Some poor children cannot afford school uniforms and the teachers‟ source some for them from the pupils who have completed school. Another teacher said that at one time
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she had to give out a medical bill for hospital and transport cost to a sick poor girl. However, the teachers said they could only do so much for the needy pupils and thus requested for a more formal arrangement to fund such cases under the FPE” (Werk, 2004, p. 70).
Certain educators especially those who are teaching in disadvantaged communities are concerned about the needs of OVC, therefore go the extra mile in taking care of such learners by providing basic needs such as food and clothes (Theron, 2008). Theron further points out that one of the teachers says “if affected learners were not feeling well or needed food or something, I tried to assist. It was not easy but I did my best” (p. 91).
Some educators sometimes supply these learners with school shoes when getting money and ask for help from other organizations such as Gift of Givers, while others provide these orphans with food by taking money out of their own pockets as well as buying them clothes. They even raise funds by making small project such as growing cabbages for fulfilling their basic needs (Bhana et al., 2006).
Moreover, some teachers in Zambia reported that they have comforted the orphaned learners who seem to have particular distress as well as referring them to the school guidance and counseling teachers (Robson & Sylvester, 2007). Additionally, one of the educators in South Africa explained that she has helped an AIDS orphan learner in Grade 12 to complete her studies by referring her to the social workers (Jairam, 2009).
Additionally, some teachers say that they spend time for counseling the affected learners when needed. They point out that sometimes the learners are in a situation where they attempt suicide therefore attend to that issue as it has an impact on the whole school (Bhana et al., 2006). Again the teachers say that when teaching a certain topic especially in Life Skills, the learners come after being taught to ask for help and they offer it and do referral if needed, for example, in the case of sexual abused orphaned (Bhana et al. 2006).
Jairam (2009, p.125) reveals that “these teachers are able to help learners get involved in the helping process itself...finally it act in a systematic fashion to reach the goals that they have set for themselves”.
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2.10 Effective classroom management with aids orphans and vulnerable