The Role of School Heads in Equalising Educational Opportunities in Disadvantaged Rural Primary Schools in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Primary schools that exist in disadvantaged rural areas in Zimbabwe face serious challenges in delivering equal educational opportunities to the learners. Learners in these areas generally do not perform well in public examinations at grade seven level. They show reduced tendencies to progress beyond compulsory education cycles and contribute more to wastage indicators such as dropping out of school. Using Rawls’ Distributive Theory of social justice (1971), this study explores how school heads deliver equal educational opportunities in selected disadvantaged rural primary schools in Bindura District of Zimbabwe. The study used a qualitative research approach conducting a case study to gather data through semi structured interviews. The participants were primary school heads, deputy heads and school chairpersons selected from five purposively sampled disadvantaged rural primary schools according to their performance status, that is, bottom performing schools in national examinations at Grade Seven level for the year 2024 (based on the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) rankings for Bindura District. For purposes of this study, a bottom performing school in the context of Zimbabwean schools is a pass rate below 25–30 for grade seven (7) examinations. The participants were selected because they experienced the phenomenon under investigation on a day-to-day basis. Findings reveal that school heads who focus on learner welfare, provision of school feeding programmes, using digital technologies, community involvement and collaboration, provision of teaching, learning and financial resources, have the potential to equalise educational opportunities in their disadvantaged primary schools in Bindura District. School heads must therefore prioritise identifying inequalities in educational opportunities that exist in their schools so that they are in a better position to enhance the equalisation of educational opportunities in the disadvantaged primary schools in Bindura District.