School management’s disaster risk reduction approaches in flood-affected schools in South Africa’s Vhembe District: A literature review

Flooding remains one of the most disruptive climate-related hazards affecting schools in rural South Africa, compromising infrastructure, learner safety, and continuity of education. In the Vhembe District of Limpopo Province, recurrent flood events have exposed weaknesses in school preparedness, governance systems, infrastructure resilience, and learning continuity mechanisms. Despite growing scholarship on disaster risk reduction and school safety, limited attention has been paid to how school management practices contribute to institutional resilience in flood-prone rural schools. This study examined Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) approaches relevant to flood-affected public schools and explored how school management practices contribute to institutional resilience. Guided by Disaster Resilience Theory (DRT), the study adopted a qualitative desktop-based systematic literature review using the PRISMA 2020 framework. Literature published between 2014 and 2026 was sourced from academic databases and institutional repositories. Following the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, ten South African studies were selected and analysed through thematic synthesis. The findings revealed three interrelated themes: governance, risk reduction and school resilience; infrastructure vulnerability and preparedness challenges; and educational continuity during disruptions. The review found that weak institutional capacity, fragmented governance structures, inadequate hazard mapping, poor infrastructure, and limited preparedness continue to undermine school resilience. Furthermore, digital inequalities and the absence of formal continuity-of-learning systems constrain educational continuity during disaster-related disruptions. The study proposes the Vhembe School Disaster Resilience Model, comprising four pillars: risk anticipation, structural absorption, governance and preparedness, and continuity-of-learning adaptation. The model offers practical guidance to strengthen resilience in flood-prone rural schools.