Abstract
Background: In 2012, the South African government initiated the Integrated School
Health Policy (ISHP) to serve as a national guideline on providing school health and
support services from key stakeholders such as the Department of Health (DoH),
Department of Basic Education (DBE) and Department of Social Development (DSD).
However, despite the ISHP regulations, publications report that teachers in underresourced
government schools are not sufficiently equipped to address their learners’
psychosocial challenges.
Aim: This study aimed to assess which psychosocial interventions implemented at the
schools the school teachers are aware of.
Setting: A total of 50 school teachers from five under-resourced primary schools in Gauteng
school communities of Meadowlands, Ivory Park, Alexandra and Doornkop-Soweto completed
a feedback questionnaire designed by the investigators.
Methods: This descriptive study follows a quantitative descriptive design. A comparative
descriptive analysis between schools using frequencies, percentages and graphs was used
to analyse the results.
Results: Results indicate that a school teachers’ ability to support their learners varies per
school and is based on their school’s compliance to training their teachers on the school
safety protocols and is not affected much by external training. Schools that follow the
ISPH regulations on teachers’ training of protocols, better equip their teachers to observe
psychosocial challenges their learners face.
Conclusion: Despite the availability of guidelines, this study observes a gap in educators’
observations of mental health concerns or external stakeholders responsible for nonphysical
assistance.
Contribution: Findings of this study provide feedback to all relevant stakeholders to assist in
their future recommendations planning. One recommendation the authors of this study
suggest may be that further studies explore if the lack of mental health observations is a result
of poor teachers–student relations or a need for school teachers to be educated on learner
mental health risk factors.