School re-entry Policy

By Waguma Akelle

Despite the school re-entry policy existing in Kenya, the factors that hinder young girls from accessing it have not been pursued yet, leading to several drop out cases for girls with unwanted pregnancies.

What this leads to is the fact that many young girls will continue to either get married off at early ages or acquire casual jobs that can barely support them
The end result therefore is a cycle of poverty and denied opportunities for both the mother and child.

At 20 years old, Liz Mecha a house girl in Komarock estate, Nairobi, says that she would have been an engineer or even a teacher.

But that was not to be; she got pregnant in standard seven and had to drop out of school.

Her dreams of ever going back to school were watered down by her father, who had strong beliefs that she would get pregnant again and that would have been a waste of the meager resources that they had.

“As a single parent, I have to work hard to make sure that my little girl gets all that she deserves, because there will never be any other chance for me to get back to class, therefore the little I earn is all that she has,” she says.

Esther Mutheka also bears the same story, in standard six, still very naive and timid, her body started changing, little did she know that she was pregnant and had to drop out of school.

Also a house girl in Komarock estate, Mutheka says that it does not cross her mind to go back to school.

“I am too old at that, besides who will take care of my little one, she is the one who needs that schooling now not me,” she says.

The father of the baby, she says, was her class teacher. She learned later that he was transferred to a neighboring school soon after the head teacher learnt that he had impregnated her.

An unplanned pregnancy could mean shame for the family, an end to the girl’s education and rejection by the baby’s father.

The school re-entry policy was launched by the ministry of education in 1995 and stipulates that after delivery, the girl can go back to school; not necessarily the same school but somewhere within the district, says Steven Karaba, Director of basic education in the ministry of education.

Karaba says that there is need to revise the policy so that it addresses the head teachers and teachers and the measures to be taken when the administration does not re admit the girls, as it is currently missing from the policy.

According to a research commissioned by Action Aid Kenya, 76 percent of girls dropped out of school, of which 12 percent got married while nothing happened to the 32 percent of teachers who were recorded to have been responsible.

From these statistics, it is evident that the victims fared off worse than the perpetrators who as in the case of teachers, got off lightly by either being demoted or being transferred to other schools.

In some cases, as indicated in the report, young girls ended their lives due to unsafe abortions or during delivery.

Besides teachers, the report indicates that 43 percent of the girls were impregnated by fellow classmates and others by outsiders.

Clearly, prevention is better than cure in these instances, says, Rosemary Muganda the executive director of Center for adolescents study.

She says that young girls continue to drop out because they lack information, and that they are still not empowered.

The early onset of sexual activity, combined with a lack of awareness about reproductive health, appears to be creating the conditions for teenage pregnancy.

Muganda adds that, “yes they need to be given a chance; to come back to school, but the ministry of education has to do something to empower these girls.

Dr Sara Ruto, a lecturer at Kenyatta University confirms that there is a long list of female school drop-outs. In the long-term this situation hampers the benefits to society were these young girls to remain in school longer.

She adds that more can be done with the re-entry policy for school-girl mothers: “While it is good, more support systems are needed to enhance its efficacy and ability to reach out to needy girls.”

This form of sexual violence has the most adverse effects. Although the emotional and psychological disturbances may go unnoticed, the most obvious sign is pregnancy. The latter implies that sexual violence carries a bigger impact for girls as opposed to boys.

“Within the school environment, teacher-girl sex mainly occurs in the teacher’s house after evening preps,” adds Ruto.

She says that teachers who impregnate their pupils are still viewed socially as a better catch for their daughters by the parents.

While other perpetrators of sexual crimes against children will get away by making a pay-off to the affected families and the case ends behind closed doors.

Even as Universal Primary Education (UPE) tries to ensure that all Kenyan children eligible for primary schooling have opportunity to enroll and remain in school, to learn and acquire basic education and skills training, the re-entry policy needs to be reinforced.

Furthermore, there are many socio-economic benefits to delaying early childbearing with better opportunities to improved education, avoidance of repetition, reduction of drop-out rates and an increased chance to acquire skills and knowledge for the girl child and her family’s future life.

Young women with low levels of education and a poor economic state often experience restricted ability and motivation to regulate their fertility, resulting in higher rates of early pregnancy.

The cycle is further perpetuated as young women who are in school are forced to discontinue their education when they become pregnant, thereby greatly restricting their economic opportunities.

In Jamaica adolescent pregnancy has long been a serious concern. In 1977 the proportion of births to teen-age mothers rose to 31% of all births, often following a pattern of 3-4 children before the age of 20.

Since 1977 the Women’s Center of Jamaica Foundation started a quality program with the objective of motivating young mothers to choose education instead of continuous motherhood. They have since helped over 22,000 mothers return to the school system.

The key point since then has seen a higher enrollment of female children into the school system and this was later reinforced by the millennium development goals.

The target is 2015, to ensure that children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

More girls are enrolling into schools, but what can the government and communities do to make sure that these girls remain within the schools?

Ruto asserts that the re-entry vision should be made workable. “There is a need for a gender analysis too, to understand the issues that affect the girls, and in terms of access a lot has been achieved but the gender gap has not been closed,” she adds.

“Unless we also address the issue of patriarchy and the role of power decisions, the vision to keep the girls in school will not be seen,” says Ruto.

Ends