EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT FOR PREGNANT LEARNERS IN ALICE

Abstract

Research on support for pregnant learners indicates that educators in sub-Saharan countries seemed not to cope in meeting the needs of pregnant learners and teenage mothers at school. The South African School Act enacted in 1996 permits pregnant learners to remain at school and be allowed a re-entry shortly after giving birth. This becomes a challenge to the School-Based Support Teams to equip educators to support such learners since these teams lack clear policies. This qualitative study was designed from an interpretivist perspective to explore the psychosocial experiences as well as the provision of support services from twelve educators (of which six of them serve in the SBST) to the pregnant learners. The data was collected through focus group interviews from senior secondary school educators in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Educators reported a plethora of stressors for their incompetence ranging from lack of in-service training from the SBST, resources to provide remedial and psychological services to pregnant learners, unclear school policies to leaners’ disregard for authority, poor academic performance and risky sexual behaviour. Based on the findings, there is a need for schools to have school-based social workers and educational or counselling psychologists to provide psychological support to pregnant learners and debriefing for educators who experience depression due to unclear pol