The Impact of Teenage Pregnancy on School Dropout among Secondary School Girls in Embu Municipality

Diploma Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Sociology - Children and Youth, , course: Diploma in Social Work, language: English, abstract: Although considerable attention has been paid to the prevalence of adolescence childbearing inKenya today, few studies have focused on the educational consequences of the schoolgirlpregnancy. Using ...

Diploma Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Sociology - Children and Youth, , course: Diploma in Social Work, language: English, abstract: Although considerable attention has been paid to the prevalence of adolescence childbearing inKenya today, few studies have focused on the educational consequences of the schoolgirlpregnancy. Using data collected in selected schools in Embu Municipality, this study examinesthe factors associated with schoolgirl pregnancy as well as the likelihood of school dropout andsubsequent re‐enrollment of schoolgirls who become pregnant.The analysis is derived from the data collected from secondary schoolgirls, education officialsand teachers on factors that predispose girls to pregnancy, the extent to which teenagepregnancy contributes to school dropout and the eventual levels of re‐admission. The dataanalysis shows that girls in secondary schools are actually already sexually active though theylack the relevant information to help them make the right choices as far as their sexuality isconcerned. The little information that they have is not conclusive and it is evident that theyyearn for information which would be useful for them.Policy on re‐admission has been formulated but the extent to which it is applied is still aquestionable issue. A lot of gaps also exist in record keeping of the girls who become pregnantwhile in school and what becomes of them when they dropout. Such records would be vital indetermining for sure if these girls become pregnant before dropping out of school or otherwiseand subsequently tracking them down for re‐admission purposes.A question is then raised on what other factors would be causing these girls to drop out ofschool other than just the pregnancy. However, poverty, cultural practices and peer pressureare among the factors assumed to be predisposing girls to pregnancy from the findings of thisstudy, while these factors in themselves would also cause dropouts. Given the increasing levelsof female school participation in Kenya today through the affirmative action motion targetingthe girl child, the findings of this study suggest that future studies will benefit from exploringthe causal relationships between the factors mentioned above, adolescent reproductive healthbehavior and subsequent school attendance.