Abstract
M.Ed.
The educational system in South Africa has undergone several changes in the last few years, with an emphasis on providing quality education for all. These changes are in line with international trends towards an inclusive approach to education and learners. Within this framework, a long-term goal of the education system is to investigate and address barriers to learning, while recognising and accommodating the diverse range of learning needs in this country. The new Education Support Services will be the cocoordinating structure which facilitates this process. At school level, school-based support teams are being created in order to provide the link between schools and these support services. Although all these changes have been documented, it has become necessary to investigate whether the new support services are indeed achieving their goals. In light of this, a qualitative study was conducted in four Gauteng primary schools, to assess the utilisation of psychological support services. The methods used were individual interviews and focus group interviews. The individual interviews were conducted with principals or life orientation coordinators. The focus group interviews included life skills educators, life orientation coordinators, members of the school-based support teams, and school management teams.
There appeared to be minimal utilisation of Psychological Support Services in this study, and this was attributed to lack of staff within the support services, an abundance of paperwork, staff turnover and unavailability, and inefficient response time to requests. Difficulties identified within the schools were academic and social issues, as well as parental and staff challenges. Trauma was also a significant problem encountered by schools. The schools in the study highlighted their needs in terms of support. These were related to intervention, including prevention and consistent ongoing support, and staff professional development. From this study it is evident that primary schools in Gauteng are not utilising the Psychological Support Services, and that the new support structures are not reaching the learners. Recommendations for improving this are made.