3. How does the existing resource demand influence the remote rural ECD school management?
5.2 Remote rural ECD schools’ responses to resource demand
5.2.5 Nutrition, health and safety resources
should share the costs of running the ECD programme to lessen the intensity of the burden on the parents. The Invitational leadership theory, believes that parents can be fully involved in the education of their children if invited into the process by school leaders (Purkey, 2006).
It was noted that these two districts experience some differences in the issue of primary health checks. All Chiredzi district schools in the study reported to have the Family Aids Caring Trust (FACT) coming to schools on an annual basis to carry out a health assessment programme. They had formal procedures to be followed, with parental/guardian involvement and referrals done. They had written records kept at the school for future reference on the health of the children.
FACT is bringing the School’s Health Assessment programme. It is usually called SHA. The last time they came on the 24 of March. Just recently, 2014, they assessed pupils from ECD to grade seven. They don’t come randomly; the FACT people tell us the date prior to visiting and the date is announced so that when they come even the parents will be aware. When they come to tell us the date, they leave forms that we complete. When they come back they asses and leave the forms with the school head, then the parents/guardians are informed by the school head. Those parents/guardians with referred children would take their children to the clinic for treatment (Mande School Deputy Head).
In contrast, the participants from Mungwezi and Muzorori schools in Zaka district showed that, there was no feeding programme in their schools. They encouraged parents to pack some food for their children when they left for school. These participants showed concern, since most of the children brought no food to school. Parents were poor; they had no extra food to pack for the child, so children spent the whole day without anything to eat. These schools rarely had nurses coming to check the health of the children. They only witnessed nurses coming to their schools during National Immunisation Programmes or outbreaks. This information was given by one of the school TICs who asserted that:
We have no nurses coming to school. They only come when there are national immunisation programmes. Like last time they came when there was the outbreak of stomach worms. Till now we don’t see nurses here. We do not have a feeding programme here, parents give children food, but most parents do not have extra food to give the children to take to school (Mungwezi School TIC).
Both districts had one thing in common in the health issue, all schools had health teachers.
These teachers were trained in basic skills to help children with minor illnesses and injury
cases. These teachers frequently attended training workshops, they were given preventive drugs like the delta prim (malaria preventive tablets) and they were bearers of the basic First Aid Kits. This is what one of the TICs had to say:
The nurses rarely come to check the health of these kids. The nurses come here once a term, which is insufficient. They only come when they have the national programme.
We have never come across such serious illness or cases of malaria. We have a trained school health teacher who collects basic drugs from the local clinic, like the malaria preventives (the delta prim) and the first aid kit contents (Muzorori School TIC).
The schools felt a bit safe on health matters on account of having the teachers who were trained as health technicians in their schools. The health personnel from clinics in the district were not coming to check the health of the children, however it was noted that they came during national programmes only or disease outbreaks. The situation of health facilities in these schools contradicts the standards found by Rose (2010) in Canada; where health facilities are established at school level even in remote rural areas. The idea of training teachers to be health technicians in school is supported by Rose (2010) who found that Canadian schools fund the training of their health personnel and pay their salaries.
Among these study site schools, there are similarities with South Africa, where nurses from adjacent clinics regularly visit schools to check on the children‟s primary health, nutritional health and attending to children who needed immediate medical attention (Mandela, 2005).
The notion of the health teacher is supported by UNESCO (2009) which recommends on weekly health inspections, daily feeding, training of health teachers and every school having a Standard First Aid Box. UNESCO (2009) continues to recommend evidence of monthly visits from the Health Worker for routine immunisation; supplementation and other health services like feeding programmes. All records should be available at the school (UNESCO, 2009). The notion of nutrition and health in ECD schools is accentuated within the findings of numerous research studies which indicate that health and safety in schools need improvement for the benefit of the students and teachers (Deiner, 2010).