Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable children in SA
particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. The World Bank report observes that a lack of
education makes girls and young women even more vulnerable to infection and that the
impact of the epidemic on them is more likely to impede their access to school than it is
that of their male counterparts. This finding is supported by a recent joint study by the
Wits Schools of Public Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,
which found that secondary school attendance can lead to a lower risk of HIV infection
among young people in rural South Africa. The report found that youths in school
reported fewer sexual partners than those out of school. For female learners, the reduction
in numbers of partners was accompanied by other protective behaviours, such as greater
condom use, less frequent sex and partners who were closer to their own age (Hargreaves
et al. 2008).
In view of the link between education and reducing the infection rate and the impact of
HIV/AIDS, especially on girls, the report recommends that countries urgently strengthen
their education systems, ‘which offer a window of hope unlike any other for escaping the
grip of HIV/AIDS’ (World Bank 2002: xv).
Girls and young women affected by HIV/AIDS are more vulnerable than their male
counterparts to having to shoulder additional domestic responsibilities when a family
member is ill or dies. The current education policy framework does not provide any
concrete remedies to address this situation in order to minimise the extent of the barrier
that additional responsibilities present to their access to education and, ultimately, to
minimise their vulnerability to infection.
Not only are the policy responses insufficient, there also appears to be a reluctance on the
part of educators to get involved in identifying and addressing the needs of schoolchildren
whose education is negatively affected by excessive domestic responsibilities. This appears
to be linked to a lack of understanding of the problem and what would constitute
appropriate solutions. This is not surprising, given that there is an absence of data on the
nature, extent and complexities of excessive domestic responsibilities and child labour
among school-age children in South Africa.
There needs to be further research into the situation and needs of learners whose access
to education is hampered by domestic responsibilities, so that the conditions that keep
them out of school can be understood and appropriate processes and mechanisms
developed, implemented and monitored by the DoE’s Inclusive Education Directorate.
There must be advocacy and training within the DoE to ensure that this barrier is included
as part of the ‘core business’ of education as outlined in the Child Labour Programme of
Action (endorsed by the DoE) (Giese & Koch 2008b).
Insufficient school infrastructure and learning resources
The quality of infrastructure and learning resources as well as the sufficiency of
teaching staff in schools, especially those providing education to poorer communities,
is problematic. For example, in 2009, only 10 per cent of public schools had libraries
stocked with books and other materials; 11 per cent had library space, but no books; and
the remaining 79 per cent had no library facilities at all. A similar deficit applies in the
case of secondary school laboratories. Only 15.6 per cent of public secondary schools
have stocked laboratories and 85 per cent have no labs at all. More than three-quarters (77
per cent) of South Africa’s public ordinary schools have no computers (DoE 2009b).
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