Perspectives and Practices: Supporting Child-Headed Household Learners in Rural Secondary Schools of Chimanimani District

This study aimed to investigate school heads' and facilitators' competency in managing learners from child-headed households in rural secondary schools in Zimbabwe's Chimanimani District. Ten school principals, ten facilitators, and eighty child-headed households were among the one hundred participants who were chosen to take part in the study. The research methodology employed in the study was phenomenological in nature. A qualitative phenomenological approach was also used in the study to investigate the competency of facilitators and school principals. While child-headed households participated in focus groups, facilitators and school principals were interviewed in-depth. To analyze the data, interpretative phenomenological analysis was used. The results showed that although school principals and facilitators possessed broad teaching credentials, they lacked professional counseling training. As a result, facilitators and school principals lack the vital abilities and information necessary to manage child-headed households in schools. The participants also emphasized that the absence of assistance from the School Psychological Service Department, which no longer regularly visits schools and does not provide facilitators and school principals with adequate training sessions, was making the issue worse. The study found that ordinary support services were not being provided to child-headed households in rural secondary schools to a sufficient degree. Therefore, the Zimbabwean Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education was advised by this study to work with other pertinent education stakeholders.