Educational challenges of 6- to 7-year-old children in children’s homes: Ensuring the right to quality education

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Educational challenges of 6- to 7-year-old children in children’s homes: Ensuring the right to quality education
 
Creator Baloyi, Blessing T. Munongi, Lucia
 
Subject — Constitution of Zimbabwe; early childhood; educational challenges; the right to quality education; Sustainable Development Goal 4.
Description Background: The 6- to 7-year-old children are in a delicate development phase. Children’s homes are meant to provide and protect them. This age range is often sidelined in research, and challenges regarding fulfilling their rights in children’s homes are often unknown.
Aim: This study explores the educational challenges experienced by the 6- to 7-year-olds in children’s homes, focusing on the right to quality education. This study aims to provide implications for Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) targets.
Setting: The study was conducted in Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare. The researchers selected seven children’s homes. A total of 42 children, aged 6 years to 7 years, took part in this study.
Methods: Data were collected by conducting individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Thematic data analysis was used.
Results: Findings indicated that inadequate academic resources, missed schoolwork because of the malfunctioning of the Basic Education Assistance Module, insufficient academic support from caregivers and inadequate technological devices hindered children’s access to quality education.
Conclusion: The study revealed challenges, such as inadequate material and financial resources, which impeded the right to quality education for children in children’s homes.
Contribution: Overall, regardless of who owned the children’s homes, the findings showed that none of the selected children’s homes in Harare were aligned with the targets of SDG 4. This study concludes that effective fulfilment of the right to quality education lies mainly in adequate funding.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Zimbabwe's Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare
Date 2025-09-04
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative method
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v15i1.1731
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 15, No 1 (2025); 9 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1731/3499 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1731/3500 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1731/3501 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1731/3502
 
Coverage Harare, Zimbabwe — The sample consisted of 42 six- to seven-year-old black African children (23 girls and 19 boys)
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Blessing T. Baloyi, Lucia Munongi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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