Department of Social Development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi during her policy speech pronounced on the need for social work services to be piloted and extended to the schools especially those in the rural areas and underperforming.

It is against this background that the Department has adopted various schools in all districts in the province in an effort to address and curb social ills perceived to be contributory to school performance led by undue low learner school passing rate.   The Department as the custodian for children who are commonly vulnerable and fragile thus children in these schools are presumably faced with psycho social challenges impacting negatively on their school performance

At the beginning of 2015 the MEC Sihlwayi led a delegation that visited these schools and the department has initiated tactics to remedy the challenges faced by learners at these particular schools. A School Social Work Programme has been introduced and will ensure that each school is allocated one Social Work Practitioner to deal with children social problems at school, Family Based Model has also been developed and launched as a means of understanding the difficulties (such as poverty, gender based violence, alcohol and drug abuse) that might prevail at homes of pupils. Such understanding of homes will mean that certain interventions will be rendered by various stakeholders.

The School Social Workers will work as an integral link between schools, home and community in helping students achieve academic services. They will provide students with therapeutic services and life skills programmes. They will also provide staff with essential information to better understand factors affecting learner behavior and assisting teachers with behavior management.