Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education In the Department of Educational Psychology of the Faculty of Education University of Zululand, 2009. / The aim of this investigation was to determine educators’ perceptions of the educational distress of children that live in a deprived milieu. An introductory literature review was provided of the characteristics of the child in educational distress. Educational distress surfaces when the quality of the occurring education is intrinsically bad. The child who finds himself within a situation of dysfunctional education thus experiences educational distress. The child’s education is impaired by affective neglect while factors in the social environment, such as a deprived milieu, compound the problem. Educational problems at home or in school affect the child adversely with regard to his meaningful experiences, knowledge, volition and behaviour, which results in a ‘deviate psychic structure.’ The child in educational distress experiences lack of security, an obscured future perspective, affective neglect, rejection and unfavourable comparisons. The life-world of the child in educational distress, which comprises the significant and meaningful physical and psychological environments of the child, was described. Besides the geographical world, the child’s life-world also includes his relationships with the self, other people, objects, ideas and religion. Actions of the child in educational distress, such as ascribing significance to matters, i.e. the formation of meaningful relationships, are of insufficient quality. This gives rise to inadequate actions of hoping, planning, gaining insight in his own life-world of never attaining freedom to be responsible. “The child in educational distress reveals signs of being unloved and left alone, a low self-esteem interpersonal distrust, anxiety and depression. For the purpose of the empirical investigation, a self-structured questionnaire was utilised. An analysis was undertaken of the questionnaires completed by the respondents, namely educators that are employed in schools situated in a deprived milieu. The data was processed, analysed and interpreted by means of descriptive and inferential statistics. In conclusion a summary of the study and findings emanating from the literature and empirical investigation were presented. Based on these findings the following recommendations were made:  To inculcate positive attitudes in children from a deprived milieu. Educators should be helped to develop ways of assisting these children to change their attitudes.  To develop and implement involvement programmes for the parents from a deprived milieu. Parental involvement in the child’s schooling is important for the effective education of the child.