IMPLEMENTATION OF RE-ENTRY POLICY OF TEENAGE MOTHERS TO SCHOOLS: A CASE OF BUNGOMA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Girls education has been facing a myriad of problems and a number of global organization has been fighting to achieve gender equity in education. Reentry policy of teenage mothers to school mooted in Beijing conference of 1995 is one intervening policy to address such. The Kenyan government adopted the policy in 2001. Despite the policy being in place, very few teenage mothers have been returning to school. The objectives of this study were to: establish the stakeholders level of awareness of the re-entry policy of teenage mothers to school, determine the perception of various stakeholders on the re-entry policy, to find out the various aspects of culture that affect the re-entry policy and to establish the implementation strategy of the re-entry policy of teenage mothers to school in Bungoma County. The critical theory as modified by Habernes was used as the theoretical framework. The convergent parallel mixed method research design was used. The research population comprised of teenage mothers, student girls, head teachers, principals, Guiding and Counselling teachers, Sub County Quality Assurance and Standards Officers. The data collection instruments were Questionnaires and Interview schedules. Questionnaires were administered to the Teenage mothers, school girls, Guidance and counselling teachers, while the interview schedule was administered to Sub County Quality Assurance and Standards Officers and head teachers. Pilot study was carried out in Trans Nzoia County. Reliability of the research instruments was tested using Spearman Rank Order correlation coefficient. A value of 0.79 was obtained and was considered high enough for the instruments to be judged to be reliable. Validity was determined by expert judgment in the School of Education in the University of Eldoret. Quantitative data were coded and presented using tables and analyzed through frequency distribution and percentages. Qualitative data were organized and broken into themes synthesized to search for patterns and meaning. This study was significant for it shed light on the level of awareness among various stakeholders of the reentry policy of teenage mothers to school, the perception of the various stakeholders on the reentry policy, identified aspects of culture that affected the implementation of the re-entry policy and the implementation strategies that are in place to implement the policy. The study revealed that most stakeholders had heard about the policy but were not familiar with the contents of the policy. The various stakeholders have a negative perception towards the teenage mother, a number of cultural aspects that affects reentry policy were identified these are attitudes, prejudices, gender discrimination and traditional customs. Various implementation strategies are in place and these are articulation of the policies, support that teenage mothers should receive and the enforcement of the policy. Its recommended that there should be a national debate on teenage motherhood to increase awareness of the policy and teenage mothers should be treated as learners with special need. Concerted efforts should address the various aspects of culture that affects reentry policy of teenage mothers and there should be a clear implementation guidelines of the policy.