Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Death or unavailability of biological parents introduces unpredictable changes in the life of orphaned and vulnerable learners. These changes mostly involve moving from a home where they were born to Children Homes, separation from siblings, and moving away from a familiar environment. Some of these learners may find it difficult to adapt to the new changes and this sometimes affect their academic performance. This article investigates the influence of Children Homes on the academic performance of orphaned and vulnerable learners. The study was conducted in three schools and one Children Home around Mbabane in Swaziland. The data were collected using face-to-face interviews, from eighteen participants involving six caregivers who are caring for these learners, six teachers who teach these learners and six learners who reside in one of these homes. The findings revealed that orphaned and vulnerable learners from these homes encounter significant problems that often contribute towards poor academic performance. The contributing factor to poor academic performance included lack of academically equipped caregivers, the stigma towards orphaned and vulnerable learners from these homes, and lack of trained counsellors to help both learners and caregivers with their social and psychological issues. It was also revealed that schools have no formal support programmes to cater for the diverse need of these learners. Therefore, intervention strategies are recommended in order to assist these learners to deal with their social and psychological issues.