Teenage mothers and their re-admission into schools: The case of secondary schools in Lusaka urban from 1997-1999
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Date
2011-08-15
Authors
Simwapenga-Hamusonde, Beatrice
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Abstract
hi Zambia, there has been unequal participation and access of girls and boys to schooling because of various reasons one of them being a policy, which required girls who got pregnant to leave school. The policy and practice of expulsion of pregnant school girls was changed in 1997.
A policy that allows the re-admission of girls who fall pregnant while schooling to return to school was introduced. This re-admission policy was introduced to promote gender equity and the advancement of girls in academic education. But many members of the public opposed this change in policy.
The major aim of this study was to examine the extent to which teenage mothers were returning to school. The study also investigated school heads' teachers', parents' and teenage mothers'awareness of the re-admission policy, their opinions of it and whether schools implemented it.
Teenage mothers' socio-economic backgrounds, experiences and problems were also examined.The study was carried out in 10 schools in Lusaka Urban District. The sample consisted of all government and mission secondary schools in Lusaka that have girls. 170 respondents provided
the required information (10 heads, 50 teachers, 60 pupils, 20 parents and 30 teenage mothers).The study established that the policy was not effectively implemented. Only 39% of the girls who left school because of pregnancy had been re-admitted to school. This was because of lack of documented guidelines and procedures, negative attitudes, socio-economic constraints, early marriages and ex-pregnant girls' fear to return to the same schools.Based on the findings of the study, research respondents suggested these recommendations:formulation of policy implementation guidelines, publicizing of the policy to all stakeholders,
implementation of the policy through transfers, keeping pregnancy records for monitoring policy impact on pregnancy, sex, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and pregnancy prevention education,counseling and further research to investigate the issue from another perspective
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Keywords
Pregnant schools girls -- Lusaka , Teenage pregnancy -- Case studies -- Lusaka