Determinants of girls schooling after pre-marital pregnancies: a study of Kenyenya division, Kisii district.

Abstract

This study is an analysis of the factors that influence the resumption of formal education of girls after pre-marital pregnancy. It seeks to explain the phenomenon of school resumption among girls who drop out of school due to pre-marital pregnancy since the recent introduction of reforms that allow re-admission. The study also seeks to assess the implementation of the new re-admission policy. The focus of the study is on unmarried adolescent mothers of Kenyenya Division, Kisii District who, together with their parents, were the main respondents. In addition, head-teachers were the other respondents. Specifically, the. study involved 120 parents and a corresponding number of their adolescent daughters, 25 primary schools head-teachers and 8 secondary schools head-teachers. Data were collected using both interview schedules and self­ administered questionnaires. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the presentation and analysis of the data. The study findings showed that the resumption of schooling by girls who had dropped out due to pregnancy is influenced by the socio-economic status of their parents. The few girls who had returned to school were mostly those whose parents had a relatively higher socio-economic status. Conversely, most of the girls who had not returned to school after delivery were those whose parents had relatively lower socio-economic status. The study also showed that girls who dropped out at younger ages were more likely to resume studies than those who were relatively older. Another important finding was that there is a relationship between girls' resumption of studies and the attitudes of the parents towards the education of girls. It was found that those girls whose parents favoured the education of both girls and boys were more likely to resume studies than those girls whose parents favoured the education of boys only. The implementation of the new readmission policy was found to be limited with a significant proportion of the head-teachers indicating that they expel girls who became pregnant while in school. Furthermore, a few head-teachers still believed that the existing policy is that of expulsion without allowing readmission. The study recommends that together with the policy of allowing girls to resume studies after delivery, which is already in place, there is need to address other factors like poverty which make this new policy meaningless to most girls from poor family backgrounds. It also recommends that parents and head-teachers be sensitized about the new policy. Also further research is recommended in order to ascertain the extent of the impact of the new policy in solving the problem of school discontinuation after pregnancy in the various regions of the country. This is necessary for it will draw more light on what needs to be done to increase the numbers of adolescents who continue with their studies after dropping out of school due to pregnancy.