The responsiveness of rural primary schools to the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the responsiveness of rural primary schools in Zimbabwe to the needs of in-school OVC. The study adopted a qualitative approach in which the phenomenological and case study designs were employed to study in-school OVC in their natural setting. The target population for the study comprises OVCs, principals and school counsellors. From this population, a sample of 24 participants was purposively drawn. Data was collected from the participants in the three sampled rural primary schools in Masvingo district through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, document analysis and observation. Tesch’s model was applied to analyse data qualitatively. The study revealed that rural primary schools’ capacity to address the needs of in-school OVC was deemed ineffective by all the participants due to a myriad of factors which include inter-alia: lack of specialist school-counsellors; lack of funds to initiate school-based projects aimed to assist OVC; lack of a comprehensive school-feeding scheme; and a dearth of workshops to equip principals and teachers with knowledge to handle and deal with OVC. To improve the responsiveness of schools to the needs of OVC the study recommends that the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education should train specialist counsellors in teachers’ colleges. The study also recommends that the government should increase funds allocated for the Basic Education Assisted Module scheme to cater for more OVC. In addition, the study recommends that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should conduct workshops in schools on how to deal with challenges confronting OVC. Lastly a model to improve rural primary schools’ capacity to address the needs of OVC was suggested, which proposes partnerships among stakeholders in projects aimed at supporting in-school OVC.