DEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies / Although on its introduction the focus of the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) was to improve health and nutritional status of South African school children, it was put in place to improve school attendance, curb absenteeism and drop-out by children of school going age as a result of hunger and poverty. It was also meant to improve the learning capacity of children since access to nutritious meals has the potential to improve their concentration levels during instructional discourses, which can enhance the quality of educational outcomes. This study explored the views of education stakeholders on the challenges they encountered in implementing the NSNP in achieving its educational goals at two schools in the Vhembe District in South Africa. Specifically, the study investigated how the NSNP influences school access, attendance and participation at schools that are benefiting from the NSNP in an endeavour to establish strategies for improving the quality of schooling. Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs was applied to explain how children’s basic needs can be a foundation to their educational needs and aspirations. A case study design involving two schools was adopted for the study and the qualitative research approach was employed. Purposive sampling method was employed to select two secondary school principals, ten secondary school class teachers per school, ten learners who were beneficiaries of the NSNP and ten of their counterparts who were not on NSNP per school, and two circuit NSNP officers. Individual and focus group interviews, documentary study and observations were used to collect data, which were analysed thematically. The findings of the study revealed that: the National School Nutrition Programme is a credible strategy for learners from poor backgrounds to access schooling and reduce their school drop-out; there was no clear difference in academic performance between leaners who participated and those who opted out of the Programme; educators felt overwhelmed by administrative work for the feeding programme, which compromised on their co-responsibilities; there were inadequate workshops to equip service providers of the Programme; food was provided under poor hygiene conditions which made some learners to opt out of the Programme; Programme records had inaccurate information. Based on the main study findings, the study recommended that the programme should continue as the majority of learners were benefiting; the Programme should have its own v administrative personnel; there should be regular staff development workshops on the Programme; schools should erect proper infrastructure for food storage and service; a multi- ministerial team of experts from health, education Programme; and all schools that have the Programme should maintain nutrition gardens for provision of fresh food. Finally, for the effective role-taking by duty-bearers for the Programme, the study concluded by recommending a model called the Increasing Achievement Mode for the National School Nutrition Programme.

MCur / Department of Advanced Nursing Science / Nursing students’ absenteeism has become a very serious concern in every higher educational institution in the whole world especially those of nursing. This study was conducted to investigate factors leading to student nurses’ absenteeism in Limpopo College of Nursing during Psychiatric Nursing Science clinical placement. A quantitative approach using descriptive design was used. Purposive sampling method was used to get a sample of two hundred and six (206) of students who have absented themselves before. Data was collected through a self-report scale in the form of questionnaires of structured questions, entered and analysed using SPSS version 24. Ethical considerations were adhered to throughout. The correlation between clinical factors and absenteeism was determined. The main reported factors for absenteeism were: student nurses being treated as a workforce in the clinical areas; shortage of staff in the clinical areas; study for tests and examinations; inadequate supervision of student nurses by professional nurses; and being inconsiderate of student nurses request for days off in the clinical area. This study recommends that the college should make a provision of one week of study for student nurses between the period of clinical placement and tests or final examinations as most of the respondents indicated that they absent themselves due to study for tests and examinations. The Department of Health should find a way of not overworking students due to shortage of staff in the wards but consider them for experiential learning. A research study should be conducted to develop a model to reduce student nurses absenteeism. / NRF

This dissertation describes the decision-making process of parents in the field of postponing the compulsory school attendance or starting it on schedule. The qualitative research is based on an aggregate of 41 semi-structured interviews with parents and two focus groups, completed by subsequent observations and interviews with parents and teachers. The research goal consisted in illuminating the background of the high number of postponements in the Czech Republic, where every year about 20 % of children start in the first class a year later. The dissertation also provides insight on this topic in a comparative perspective and analyzes the initiation of compulsory education in selected European countries. The research results presented in the form of an established theory document that parents' decisions are based primarily on the needs of the family and especially of the need to be a good parent. The decision making is influenced also by the parents' attitude to the delay which has also impact on the weight being attached to other factors of the decision-making process, such as school maturity and individual areas of school readiness as well as the month of birth. During the decision-making process the experience of parents with enrolment in the first grade plays an important role as well. The...

This Master's thesis focuses on the cooperation between school and the Authority for Social and Legal Protection of Children (OSPOD) with the emphasis on neglecting school attendance in primary school. Cooperation of OSPOD with other authorities is a significant part of OSPOD employee's job description. At school, especially primary school, the undesirable effects of dysfunctional family environment or other socially pathological effects can be manifested on a child. Teachers also play a very important role because they can bring attention to potentially undesirable display of children's behaviour, such as neglecting school attendance. The quality of the cooperation between school teachers when dealing with the neglect of school attendance may have a significantly positive effect on a child's life. The thesis is divided into theoretical and empirical parts. The first part consists of the theoretical conceptualization of the problem. In the empirical part, qualitative data were collected through a case study which was focused on the cooperation between OSPOD and a selected primary school. Key words: OSPOD, school, absenteeism school attendance, primary school, cooperation, dysfunctional family environment, socio-pathological effects, teacher, social worker

Early reading literacy development of early readers at the beginning of the school attendance Abstract The aim of the dissertation is to monitor the development of the initial reading literacy of early readers, i.e., children who have learned to read with the comprehension before beginning of their school attendance. The aim of the research was to find answers to the questions how and when these children learned to read and how their initial reading literacy and motivation to read developed during the first year of primary school. Subsequently, the subject of the research was the verification of the connection between early reading and intellectual giftedness and family background. The theoretical part is devoted to current trends in primary school, the basic principles of primary education are described with emphasis on personal and constructivist conception of teaching, focusing on the topics of pupil assessment and inclusive education, including the education of gifted and exceptionally gifted students. The term reading literacy is defined, the stages of its development are distinguished and questions concerning reading are discussed, including the results of research on early reading in the Czech and foreign contexts. The chapter devoted to giftedness defines the term of giftedness and its...

The content of the research part was the creation of an intervention program that was realized with a group of ten children who are about to enroll to the first grade in April. This program had focused on the development in individual areas, in particular: fine motor skills, graphomotor skills, visual perception, mathematical pre-literacy, auditory perception and spatial orientation. The intervention program included 12 lessons that took place in the in kindergarten in the morning. We tought each lesson for about half an hour. Each lesson included five activities aimed at development of fine motor skills or graphomotor skills, visual perception, mathematical pre-literacy, auditory perception and spatial orientation. The whole program was motivated by the Squirrel Týnka and Krysík, who were represented by a puppet made out of a sock. All the individual activities were set to forest environment, home of the Squirrel Týnka. Thanks to the intervention program, children were able to improve in individual areas. The test of fifteen small tasks was run before the start of the intervention program. There was an input diagnostic program used to verify the effectiveness of the intervention program. The test of fifteen small tasks was run before the start of the intervention program The tasks focused on...

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Problematisk skolfrånvaro är ett omfattande problem som kan få sociala, emotionella och kunskapsmässiga konsekvenser för barn och ungdomar. Forskning visar att multimodala interventioner är effektiva i att öka skolnärvaro, vilka programstrategier inom interventionerna som fungerar i vilka kontexter saknas däremot kunskap om. En realistisk översikt genomfördes därför i syfte att undersöka vilka orsaker till problematisk skolfrånvaro som går att identifiera i tidigare forskning. Vidare var syftet att öka förståelsen för multimodala interventioner genom att specificera vilka programstrategier som leder till ökad skolnärvaro inom vilka kontexter. Efter en systematisk sökprocess inkluderades totalt 124 vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultatet av den realistiska analysen visade att trygghet, attityd, känsloreglering, social kompetens, motivation, föräldraförmåga, föräldrars föreställningar, kommunikation, tillit, familjedynamik, relationen mellan elev och lärare, skolklimat, skolorganisering, normativa föreställningar samt jämlikhet kan generera skolfrånvaro i särskilda kontexter. Inom de multimodala interventionerna identifierades åtta programstrategier som visat sig öka skolnärvaro i vissa kontexter. Mest empiriskt underlag förelåg för de strategier som arbetade med föräldra-förmågan och kommunikationen i elevens omgivning. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av behavioristisk teori om operant betingning och systemteori. Översiktens slutsatser kan öka förståelsen för orsaker till skolfrånvaro och vägleda yrkesverksamma i vilka programstrategier som bör implementeras under vilka omständigheter. / Problematic school absenteeism is a comprehensive problem associated with social, emotional and cognitive consequences for children and adolescents. Research shows that multimodal interventions are effective in increasing attendance. However, there is a need to refine the contexts in which multimodal interventions are effective. Therefore, a realistic review was carried out in order to identify the causes underlying problematic school absenteeism in previous research. Furthermore, the purpose was to increase the understanding of multimodal interventions by specifying which program strategies lead to increased school attendance in which contexts. Following a systematic search process, a total of 124 articles were included. The results showed that security, attitude, emotion regulation, social skills, motivation, parent self-efficacy, parental beliefs, communication, trust, family dynamics, student-teacher relationship, school climate, school organization, normative ideas and equality can generate school absenteeism in specific contexts. Eight program strategies that generated attendance in different contexts were identified within the multimodal interventions. Most empirical support were found for the strategies related to parent self-efficacy and communication. The result was analyzed using behavioral and systems theory. The conclusions can advance the understanding of causes to absenteeism and guide professionals regarding which program strategies should be implemented under which circumstances.

Truancy is one of the problems that exist in schools and affect learners' performance. The aim of the current study was to determine how truancy manifests and also to explore the life world of truants in secondary schools. From the literature review, the two types of truancy, namely blanket truancy and post-registration truancy were described. Various programmes and approaches used in truancy intervention were explored. An empirical investigation was undertaken with a sample of 758 Grade 10 learners from three secondary schools. The results indicated that significantly more males than females engaged in truancy. There is also a significant dependency between learning problems and truancy. The results of the study were analysed and recommendations for intervention and for further study were made. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Guidance and Counseling)

The main purpose of this study was to determine the management of the phenomenon of learners’ partial absenteeism and late coming at four public secondary schools of the Tshwane West (D15), in the light of the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) Circular 13 of 2002. Respondents targeted for data collection were members of the School Management Teams (SMTs) of the four public secondary schools (n35). To address the initial propositions of this study, a qualitative case study research design and its techniques for data collection and analysis were used. The emergent findings indicated that: absenteeism during school hours (partial absenteeism) and late coming, which also applies to educators, are rife across the four participating public schools. SMT members’ limited knowledge of school management in general, and the GDE’s Circular 13 in particular, were found to be the main barrier to the effective management of partial absenteeism and late coming. Additional contributory factors were learner’s attitude and conduct and poor school infrastructure. Recommendations to help address the problem under inestigation are also made. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Educational Management and Leadership)