International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue X, October 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Policy Brief Pregnancy School Re-entry policy in Zambia

Namakau Kakanda Sinkala
University of Witwatersrand, Zambia

I. WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

Teenage pregnancy is a global problem which interferes with the education of the girl child. This ends up perpetuating social injustice against females by making them vulnerable to poverty.
Promotion of social justice through gender equality is at the center of development. The ideology of women’s empowerment through formal and non -formal education is a critical area of development which the United Nations has been championing.
Adolescent girls’ education was amplified by the Beijing platform of action of 1995 which emphasized on the need to intellectually nurture the girl child as she grows into a woman (Beijing Declaration & Platform for Action , 1995).
Some African countries including Zambia introduced Re-entry policy as a strategy to enable teenage mothers to continue their education. It was assumed that teenage mothers would take advantage of the Re-entry policy to continue their education after childbirth. This has not been the case as teen mothers’ re-entry across countries including Zambia established that significant number of teenage mothers are not re-entering (Nyariro, 2018).

II. SCALE OF THE PROBLEM

• Cumulative statistics on teenage pregnancy amongst schoolgirls in Zambia from 2003 -2017 was 179071 with 67685 readmission of teen mothers accounting for a rsocial sciencee-entry level of 38 % (Ministry of Education, 2003; 2004; 2005; 2006) (Ministry of Education, 2007; 2008; 2009; 2010) (Ministry of Education, 2011; 2012; 2013) (Ministry of Education, 2014; 2015; 2016; 2017).
• The trend of teenage pregnancy and low readmissions is higher at primary school level than secondary school level.
• It is also more pronounced amongst school girls from low income groups.

III. UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM

Recent statistics in Zambia show that 59% of adolescent girls in Zambia aged 15-19 years are either pregnant or are teenage mothers (UNICEF, 2019). The Ministry of Education in Zambia introduced the school re-entry in 1997.