Challenges of Parental Role in Enhancing Academic Performance of Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Eswatini Mainstream Primary Schools

Abstract

Learners with autism spectrum disorder in Eswatini mainstream primary schools are showing high academic failure rate. In spite of that, the learners' parents have not been adequately capacitated on matters related to mainstreaming the learners into regular schools, yet by virtue of being parents, they are pillars of their families. This qualitative, phenomenological interpretivism study sought o explore and understand challenges of parental role in enhancing academic performance of learners with autism spectrum disorder in Eswatini mainstream primary schools. Data were collected through individual interviews, focus-group interview and document analysis, whereby we used interview guides , an audio recording system and a document analysis form to extract data from fifteen purposively sampled male and female parents and teachers of the learners with autism spectrum disorder from four mainstream primary schools in Eswatini. One striking finding of this study demonstrated that a major challenge for parents was lack of effective communication due to their absence in their meetings. Hence, schools should consider using modernised modalities of holding parents' meetings, like Microsoft Teams to allow the parents to juggle their multiple roles through a robust multi-disciplinary approach for strengthening collaboration among stakeholders.