5.3 Discussion of results
5.3.5 School supportive role
In response to the second research question, How can primary school educators be equipped to deal with the challenges of teaching AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in their classroom? A list of various supports needed was mentioned to show on which resources they drew and will employ to help them address the issues of OVC in their schools. The participants mentioned and illustrated the nature and extent of the challenges, resources and potential resources in the community.
Below is the resources list envisaged by the educators to put them in a better position to help OVC:
Engaging the services of other professionals
Employment of school resident counselor who has experience on counseling.
We need to be well paid, well trained and supported
Collaboration with other stake holders in the community
Feeding scheme should be continuous and regular Figure 5.2 support list
Most the educators gave their different views on how the school can play a supportive role as they stated:
Educator B’s view is more of professional support as she stated thus:
“The school needs to support the educators by engaging the services of other professionals such as; psychologist, medical experts and social workers to work in collaboration with the educators so that the educators’ burden can be lessened and
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the OVC can be effectively and holistically catered for, as there are some of these learners that manifest some emotional disruptive behavior, some are very sick as a result of the infection because their CD4 counts is very low, while others are showing fixed emotions in the classroom, some even manifest behaviors which are beyond our managing capability as educators.” (Educator B)
Also in the same view with educator B on professional support for educators, Educator D gave a lengthen statement as she stated thus:
“The school needs to employ more staff to work with OVC, especially, Life Orientation educator to assist the OVC as we believe that such educators has been trained to understand some issues that concerns OVC more than a an ordinary educator who majored in mathematics. Furthermore, the school should also employ a permanent school counselor who got training and experience in counseling. As much as I would have loved to help these children, but unfortunately, as I said earlier, I don’t have any counseling experiences and this make it difficult and impossible for me to help these children when they start showing those disruptive behaviors, since these professionals only visit the school once in a while, this will make it difficult for the OVC to disclose to a stranger that he/she sees just for the first time, but if the counselor is permanently employed, it will be easier for us to send those children to them whenever they start showing those disruptive signs and it will also enable the children to trust and disclose their issues to the resident counselor as it is not easy for the children to just trust and disclose to a visiting counselor for they will see him/her as a stranger. Another supportive role of the school to the educators (especially some of us who have OVC in our classroom) will be to send some of us for counseling training course, so that it will be easier to work with AIDS orphans and vulnerable children”. (Educator D)
Educator B again added that they need to be well paid for this enormous task of teaching OVC as she stated:
“We need to be well paid, well trained and supported to do this enormous task of teaching OVC, because we go out of our way to care for AIDS orphans and
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vulnerable children by spending our own money to care for OVC. Therefore,we need to be well paid and supported because our wellbeing will affect our teaching performances positively and also OVC scholastic performances will improve because when I’m happy doing what I’m doing, definitely, I will bring the best out of that thing vice-versa”. (Educator B)
Educator C responses on school support for educators is on a perspective of the school collaborating with some stakeholder in the community to work together with educators so that the OVC in their classroom will be taken care of holistically, as she stated thus:
“It is impossible for us an educator to meet all the basic needs of AIDS (OVC), therefore, in others for the educators to be supported to overcome some challenges that we encountered for having OVC in our classroom then collaboration with other stake holders in the community will be of high recommendation and priority”. (Educator C)
When Educator C was asked to mention those stakeholders in the community to collaborate with? She then replied thus:
“The stake holder in the community to collaborate with should include religious leaders i.e. pastors, as they will really help these kids spiritually and prayerfully to know that there is a God who loves them, moreover, the prayers of these priest will continually be reviving the AIDS orphans and vulnerable children’s soul and delivering them from all impending dangers and sicknesses, also the police needs to come and instill some fear on the bullies among them and more importantly is the collaboration with the parent/caregivers of OVC because the working together of educator and caregivers will put us both (educators and caregivers) in a better position to understand and render holistic care to the AIDS orphans and vulnerable children”. (Educator C)
On a different note Educator D stated thus:
“The principal’s initiative of the feeding scheme should be continuous and regular to reduce unnecessary burden on the educators, the school should look for donors and sponsors like Shoprite, Pick n Pay and Gem to donate food for the feeding
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scheme and school uniform for OVC as we are in the rural area of Pinetown where most children in the school are from poor homes and also vulnerable”. (Educator A)
The teachers should arrange feeding schemes for OVC who come to school without having eaten any food at home. In some schools a grandmother who cares for orphans is asked to prepare food for children at school (Buthelezi, 2008 and Lemmer & Van Wyk, 2007). The potential role for the teacher is to identify OVC in their classroom who need some sort of support (Van Leer, 2005). This support could be emotional, spiritual or supply of food, clothing, writing materials and homework support.
Therefore, the educators should be more transformational in their classroom facilitation.
Furthermore, the educators need to create structures and networks that promote character building and create experiences in which the child can succeed (Wood, 2008). Teachers, through creative classroom management strategies, can play a fundamental role in the integration of OVC with other children in order to transform them.
The management of classrooms with OVC places a need for teachers to create an allowing classroom environment that would address OVC’s needs. Teachers need to create an environment wherein OVC would feel loved, secure and valued because they do not receive such support at home (Wood, 2008).
Other services could be psycho-social support services as mentioned by the educators.
Educators must assist OVC with psychosocial and physical support and if needs be, also refer the OVC to other sectors for professional help. The children who do not receive psychosocial support to fulfill all their basic needs may suffer long-term social and emotional impairment (Van Dyk, 2008).