A case study of high school learners' and social workers' experiences and challenges in the face of COVID-19 disaster in low socio-economic environments

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in South Africa being placed on alert level 5 from 27 March 2020 for the lockdown period, with restrictions on the movement of persons and goods in terms of the Disaster Management Act, Act 57 of 2002. The strict lockdown measures resulted in social isolation, the closing of schools and the economic environment, and the closing of all social events, sports, and religious gatherings. The purpose of this study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the experiences and challenges high school learners faced in a low socio-economic environment during the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown to explore the challenges high school learners face during any disaster when schools are forced to close. This study was done from a social work perspective to contribute to school social work practices providing for the emotional and material needs of high school learners during any disaster. Therefore, the experiences and challenges of school social workers in this situation were also explored. The researcher used the ecological system theory. This study undertook a case-study-based qualitative approach to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, complimented by the explorative, descriptive, and contextual designs. Data collection was carried out through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews guided by a set of open-ended questions, involving both high school learners and school social workers. Additionally, their behaviour was observed and documented during these interviews. A purposive sample was selected from the research population for this purpose. The research population for this study included all high school learners as well as school social workers from different schools in a low socio-economic environment in the Pretoria West suburb of Pretoria. The process that the researcher used to analyse the qualitative generated data involved the steps set out by Tesch and the ATLAS.ti 23 software qualitative research tool used for coding and analysing transcripts. Data were verified through participants' review, triangulation, peer examination, and the audit trail. The study offers significant insights and recommendations for school social workers dealing with high school learners from a vulnerable environment during a forced school closure. The study found that high school learners and school social workers appreciated the chance to share their narratives and vent their emotions. Forced school closure compromised the rights of learners to education, continuing to provide essential material needs, emotional support, socialisation, and emotional well-being. On the other hand, school social workers were not able to fully provide for the above needs due to the lockdown restrictions, limited resources, lack of training, limited access to learners, and emotional strain. The results include that school social workers play a vital role when schools are forced to close during a pandemic or disaster, to seek agreeable measures to assist learners with their material and psycho-social needs. Using the study's findings, the researcher created a list of suggestions for social policies, social work practice, further research, training and a contribution to social work knowledge.