Abstract
D.Ed.
The number of learners sentenced at the children's court and criminal court to reformatory and industrial schools increase annually. The nature of the offences by children is becoming more serious. Today offences like armed robbery, murder, rape and dealing in drugs are common, as opposed to a few years ago when offences like aggressive behaviour, shoplifting, and refusal to do homework or attend school were the norm in these cases.
Learners who are sentenced to reformatory and industrial schools must be rehabilitated. This implies that these schools should have a rehabilitation programme in place. The researcher is the manager responsible for reformatory and industrial schools in the Mpumalanga Department of Education. It is in this capacity the researcher noted that these schools do not have suitable rehabilitation programmes available for these learners.
The aim of the research was to establish themes to be included in rehabilitation programmes for reformatory and industrial schools. The research design is qualitative, explorative and descriptive. The research method is divided into three phases. The first phase applied a situational analysis to establish the themes of the rehabilitation programme. In phase two the information obtained was organised into categories and subcategories. The following main themes were identified:
• problematic view of the self;
• problematic view of parents of the learner; and
• problematic view of the future.
The third was to develop a rehabilitation programme and implement it at the reformatory and industrial schools in the Mpumalanga Province. The development of the programmes was based on the developmental approach.
This approach ensures that the focus is placed on the strong positive aspects of the learner during the rehabilitation programme. The learners develop skills to identify their own problems and to solve the identified problems. The aim of the rehabilitation programme is to achieve the following:
• the learner must demonstrate an understanding of his/her problematic situation;
• the learner must form new meanings;
• reformulation of norms and values need to take place; and
• self-acceptance and a focus on the future must take place.
For the successful implementation of the rehabilitation programme the researcher acts as the provincial coordinator. A provincial multidisciplinary team consisting of the following people assists the provincial coordinator: principlas from reformatory and industrial schools and the psychologist of each school. The personnel members of each school are utilised as facilitators of the rehabilitation programme. The rehabilitation programme is presented to groups of learners. Techniques like story telling, dramatisation, group work, competitions, and games are used in this programme.
The learner starts the rehabilitation programme the day he/she is admitted to the school. The programme is complete when the learner is rehabilitated and ready to be placed back in the community. This occurs when he can accept himself and is able to strive towards realistic future expectations and success.