FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.2 RESULTS
4.3.1 Themes
4.3.1.3 Engagement with departmental policies
Policy on HIV and AIDS (DoE, 2001a), in reality the SMT members respond in an uncoordinated way by drawing on their ‘ubuntu’ perspective.
Section 12.1 of the National Policy on HIV and AIDS states that the governing body of a school or the council of an institution may develop and adopt its own implementation plan for HIV and AIDS to give operational effect to the national policy. In the HIV Emergency Guidelines for Educators (DoE, 2000b), the Ministry of Education urges schools to become caring communities. Furthermore, the SMT and particularly the principal, have the final responsibility to ensure the safety of the learners and the quality of its education (DoE, 2003). In other words the SMTs need to be clear in their vision to build a supportive and appreciative environment.
Evidence from the responses indicate that SMTs are caught up in an adhoc way of addressing HIV and AIDS-related issues, including issues of OVC in their school context. Concurring with this finding is Van Vollenhoven’s study (2003) regarding the SGB, whose members also pointed out that they were not aware of their functions of putting HIV and AIDS policies in place.
From the data collected in this study, it has become clear that there is a need to put a school policy in place. However, little work has been done to develop feasible school policies to support OVC as this participant’s response indicates:
“… I remember, at the beginning of this year where we had to formulate our own policy on HIV and AIDS and we never completed.”
“…Initially from the SMTs’ meeting we have to come up of with policies so one of those policies was HIV and AIDS…we never completed the whole thing, I remember it was my task.”
“… At our school we ask Mondi to deal with it.”
Despite the initiative of one SMT to come up with an HIV policy, it was not successfully concluded, perhaps owing to a lack of support from all the other educators. The support drawn from a paper industry in the proximity of the school ties in with the HIV and AIDS guidelines for Educators which acknowledge the need for involvement of other stakeholders to participate in developing the school policy (DoE, 2000c).
The above idea emphasized the significance of interactions between the SMT members in developing school policies, which are fundamental for addressing OVC in their school contexts.
Realizing the rising tide of orphaned and vulnerable learners due to AIDS, the Ministry of Education emphasized the need for collaboration, “we recognized that no one could respond to HIV and AIDS alone…the Department of Education has put together guidelines to help SGBs and SMTs to work together to respond to HIV and AIDS” (DoE, 2003, p.5).
Educators’ responsibilities seem to be stretched beyond their daily routines and practices. A baseline survey in Botswana, on enhancing the development of leadership skills in the management of HIV and AIDS in secondary schools (DoE, 2007), reported teachers’ responses as looking upon HIV and AIDS programs as a burden, taking focus off the core school functions.
The Botswana survey also pointed to a lack of engagement among heads and deputy heads. This was evident in my study as well, as the school principals were unable to participate in the SMT focus group interviews.
The demands for educational responses to OVC put pressure on the leadership role of the SMTs.
The importance of their working with other stakeholders was highlighted by one of the participants;
“…the school should work with other departments.”
“…we can make list of the learners and their needs and organize a social worker who will make sure that these learners’ problems are considered.”
Concerns related to resources were also prevalent amongst the participants’ responses. The participants were more concerned with making use of the resources that are available to them rather than always expecting support from outside. This was verbalized by one participant as follows:
“…there are good things that schools can do, but one other thing that is a concern to me is if we structure our school in a way that people help themselves, rather than depending on other people, because now it’s becoming like a culture especially in our country because we always expect that people will be given things.”
The emphasis on expanding and building on the resources that the communities have, has been strongly argued for (Ebersohn & Eloff, 2006a; Eloff & Ebersohn, 2001; Kretzmann &
McKnight, 1993). Notwithstanding this, an asset-based approach emphasizes mobilising and
pulling together the cultural and physical resources, skills, abilities, networks and support systems (Ferreira, 2006), in other words, the assets that already exist and which are locally available for everyday use. The emphasis on expanding the roles of the schools as centres of care and support for OVC requires SMT to be proactive in initiating shared experiences in the school and the development of relationships with other departments. Collaboration is a fundamental asset that could help overcome isolation and helplessness in trying to respond to issues of learners orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS in the school context.