Abstract
This article explores the roles of education in driving children onto the streets and facilitating reunification with family. These roles are discussed in terms of how they contribute to street childhood and how they become part of a reintegration package. Against this background, education is considered a social vaccine against risky behaviours among children. The data were collected using qualitative research and semi-structured interviews with street-involved children and key informants. The study sampled 18 participants, including 10 street-involved children, eight informants from the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Non-Governmental Organisation staff, guardians and former street-involved children. Five of the ten street-involved children were females, and the other five were males. Data analysis revealed that these children faced education-related risk factors such as material poverty, differential treatment, adverse childhood experiences, truancy, stigma, and peer influence. The children employed resilience pathways like reunification support and putting personal effort into their schooling. The article recommends the government ensure that children from poor, blended and at-risk families receive mental health and financial support to continue attending school. Street-involved and at-risk children require comprehensive schooling support, family strengthening and protection from abuse to ensure their well-being and safety.
Keywords: Street-involved children, education, resilience, vulnerability, well-being and family reunification
Conclusion and recommendations
The researcher concludes that street-involved children face educational challenges on their way into and out of the streets. The findings suggest that some of the street-involved children leave home to stay on the streets against the backdrop of challenges in schooling. These challenges include differential treatment regarding schooling support, adverse experiences, stigma, truancy and peer influence. These findings relate to the observations by Masten et al. (2015), Ferguson et al. (2014) and Morton et al. (2018) that street-involved youths are at significantly elevated risk levels regarding schooling, leading to challenges regarding their enrollment and success in school. The children also show that they may use schooling as a resilience pathway; some NGOs use schooling support as reunification kits, while some children show determination and personal efforts in getting educated. In that regard, education seems like a revolving door for getting out of home into the streets and also as a pathway for community reintegration. The study recommends that the government increase efforts to provide educational support to children facing financial and emotional hardships. Indeed, the government should strengthen families facing poverty, especially those that cater to orphaned children, and train the same caregivers on positive parenting. The government should provide education to street-involved children, including life skills and vocational training. This imparts decision-making, interpersonal skills, stress and coping, health literacy and emotional intelligence.
Regarding vocational skills, individual and former street-involved children should be free to select the courses they want. The government should provide funding for such an education. Perhaps more importantly, the government should give rehabilitation and therapeutic services to street-involved children to help them deal with adverse psychological and emotional experiences both at home and on the streets. Parents, families and communities should also be trained in providing care and positive parenting for children, which should help them prevent, mitigate and detect the cases of street childhood. The author recommends that future studies be quantitative and comparative to determine the prevalence of schooling among these street-involved children and also show causality, or at least relationships, amongst the key variables such as homelessness, family dynamics and key educational outcomes.
Citation: Mhizha, S. 2024. Education as the revolving door into the streets and back home among street-involved children in Harare, Zimbabwe. Journal of Management and Policy Issues in Education (JMPIE), Vol.1 (1) (2024), 40–55
ISSN: 2773-6687, E-ISSN: 2773-6695
This work was supported by funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York [grant number: G-20-57628] and the Future Africa Research Leadership Fellowship at Future Africa, University of Pretoria.
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