The feasabilty of Employee Assistence Programmes for rural schools in Limpopo

Abstract

Multiple factors have an impact on schools in rural areas. Most of these factors relate back to either the conditions of the environment; behaviour of children, structural challenges in schools and working conditions of teachers. In combination these factors not only contribute to poor school performance but also to high incidence of teacher social problems. This article critically examines the potential of introducing an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) at rural schools as a resource in support of developing rural school capacity. Utilising focus group methodology to gather data from teaching personnel post an introductory workshop, the feasibility of such programme is examined. Findings confirmed that although the concept is feasible, its implementation would require skillful modeling to accommodate the multi-factor nature of the system in which it is supposed to function. Guidelines are provided to facilitate the introduction of such a comprehensive EAP model.