Ecological-systems perspective as a theoretical framework for School Social Work practice in Zimbabwe and beyond

Abstract

Globally, education systems are in a crisis. A host of challenges within and outside education systems have emerged as barriers to positive learning outcomes (Huxtable, 2022). In education, as Rose and Alcott (2015) argue, positive learning outcomes which are characterized by mastery of literacy and numeracy skills are what count. The Zimbabwe education system is in a state of disaster as a majority of learners fail to master the basic literacy and numeracy competencies. This can be affirmed by the consistently low pass rates in the lower secondary level 1 public examinations for the period 2014 to 2018 which stood at 22.14, 27.89, 29.98, 28.71 and 32.81% respectively (Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, 2019). Due to a host of challenges in the education system as noted by Muchemwa and Patel (2022), some schools have over the years, recorded zero pass rates in the public examinations. From a development perspective, basic literacy and numeracy competencies are the building blocks towards the acquisition of