Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Department of Basic Education
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grief and trauma associated with illness and death of family/household members;
increased domestic responsibility and risk of child labour for children facing both
poverty and HIV/AIDS;
HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination.
However, these policies are not being implemented properly because of insufficient policy
coordination and lack of policy coherence, as well as insufficient communication and
training of the people responsible for developing school level implementation policies and
plans and those responsible for actual implementation. The school governing bodies are
primarily tasked with developing operational and implementation plans at school level.
There are too many policies and the school governing bodies, or those who know of the
policies, do not know how they fit together or how they ought to be applied. They are
not given sufficient guidance on how to navigate the complex web of policies or how to
translate them into practical plans of action. The policy guidelines and manuals that have
been produced do not provide concrete and practical advice on how to deal with, prevent
and avoid the barriers in question, especially with regards to stigma and discrimination.
The recommendations are often too vague (Giese & Koch 2008b).
The process for the identification of learners affected by HIV/AIDS in ordinary public
schools as learners with special needs (which would result in their being placed in special
schools) is not sufficiently inclusive of affected parties. There is a lack of involvement of
educators, parents and learners themselves in the assessment process for determining the
special needs of learners. At present, the process is dominated by medical professionals.
There are too many referrals of children with unique learning needs to special schools.
Learners continue to be unnecessarily referred to special schools primarily because the
mainstream schools do not have adequate resources to provide for the needs of children
with additional/special needs. There must be improved investment in infrastructure and in
professional and financial support for mainstream schools so that they can accommodate
and meet the needs and rights of vulnerable children and/or children with special needs
(Giese & Koch 2008b).
More than 2 million learners enrolled in ordinary schools in 2007 were orphans who had
lost either one or both parents; 460 000 learners had lost both parents. 83 There is a lack
of appropriate referral options and insufficient training for educators on dealing with
children affected by grief and trauma brought about by, inter alia, illness and death of
family/household members. There are not enough appropriately qualified professional
support staff at schools to provide support to the numbers of grief-stricken children living
in households affected by HIV/AIDS that experience multiple bereavements, and to ensure
that children are not further traumatised by inappropriate counselling/intervention (Giese
& Koch 2008b).
The response by the DoBE and schools to the increase in domestic responsibilities,
especially for girls, brought on by HIV and poverty in the family is inadequate.
A report by the World Bank (2002: ix) found that a ‘good basic education ranks amongst
the most effective – and cost effective – means of HIV prevention’. The HIV & AIDS
and STI National Strategic Plan 2007–2011 identifies girls and young women as being
83 Annual School Survey, 2010
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