South African pregnant students need creches and compassion to remain in school

After giving birth, Boitumelo opted not to return to school. She believed she would be prohibited from returning because she was now a mother. She then had an unexpected interaction:

Why didn’t you return to school? Do you attend a different institution. I responded, “No, I am a parent.” Then they said, “We need you in January, this school is empty without you,” which gave me the confidence to declare, “Oh, I must return to school.”

According to South African legislation, Boitumelo was permitted to continue her education during and after her pregnancy, without fear of stigma or prejudice.

However, her experience of a helpful educational atmosphere has been sadly seldom. A learner in the KwaZulu-Natal region was required to sue her school in early November 2022 in order to appear for her final matriculation exams.

In July 2022, she was expelled for violating the school’s “pregnancy policy.”

Each year, almost 100,000 adolescent girls give birth in South Africa. Between 2019 and 2022, between 12 and 14% of births in facilities were to adolescents.

In particular, the number of births by teenagers aged 10 to 19 in South Africa’s public health institutions increased from 129,223 in 2019 to 139,362 in 2022.

This increase in births is a setback in comparison to the moderate progress made between 1998 and 2016 in reducing teen pregnancy rates.

The educational, health, social, and economic destinies of young women are affected by unwanted pregnancy.

It can prevent children from continuing or completing school, so preventing them from obtaining further education and training.

I wanted to determine what factors influenced the educational decisions of young women who discovered they were pregnant.

Some briefly dropped out, while others continued in school during their pregnancies and returned after giving birth. Others dropped out for good.

My findings indicate that schools, families, and the larger community have a crucial influence in deciding a young woman’s choice of action.

Support and encouragement can keep them in school, whereas stigmatization and marginalization will force them to drop out completely.

For my study, I conducted in-depth interviews with 30 young women from a South African urban community; 24 of them were in school when they discovered they were pregnant. Their ages ranged between 15 and 20. Except for one instance, their pregnancies were unplanned.

Thirteen of the participants who discovered they were pregnant chose to continue their education.

They encountered a spectrum of responses from the school administration and teachers, ranging from active support for them to continue attending school to attempts to reject or shame them.

In one instance, a pregnant student was told to leave school because the institution refused to assume responsibility for her health.

Her mother challenged the school by arranging for the young woman to be accompanied to school every day by an aunt who would assume responsibility for her health.

The ability to arrange for infant care was a crucial factor in determining whether or not a student remained in school.

The Child Support Grant, which currently amounts to R480 (approximately US$28) per month and is awarded based on financial need, increased the initiative of young mothers to find care for their infants in local creches or with paid caregivers, particularly in urban areas where relatives were not always available to provide care.

The desire not to disappoint families who had made sacrifices to educate daughters was also a significant factor in determining whether or not girls would remain in school in spite of obstacles.

Six additional participants dropped out of school temporarily. This was primarily due to school regulation, shame and embarrassment about attending school while pregnant, and the need to take a break while coping with the difficult responsibilities of pregnancy and motherhood.

The remaining five young women I interviewed dropped out of school permanently due to school policy, difficulty to balance motherhood and education, and lack of help to care for their infants.

Their choice was heavily affected by the responses of their family, partners, and friends.

For instance, Bontle’s mother informed her she had to care for her “mistake” (infant) and so had to quit school:

I couldn’t return (to school) because my mother said I should take care of the baby; no one will take care of my baby because I chose to have a child while still in school.

These findings highlight the crucial role that schools and the larger family and society play in determining whether or not young pregnant women continue and complete their education.

In contravention of South Africa’s legal and constitutional framework, they also reveal that schools continue to implement “policy” excluding pregnant students from school or shaming them.

Young pregnant women require assistance to argue for their right to continue their education and require care and support from their families and communities to make it easier for them to finish their education.

The Department of Basic Education must guarantee that school administration and governing boards are well-versed on policies pertaining to pregnant students. Schools responsible for violating the rights of pregnant students must be held accountable.

Individual schools must achieve a balance between treating pregnant students similarly to other students and meeting their unique needs.

Teachers should be taught to offer psychosocial and other forms of assistance, and the increased risk of dropout among pregnant students should be included as part of a comprehensive care and support package for vulnerable students.

In addition, schools can connect pregnant and parenting students with health and social assistance, such as ensuring that young mothers obtain the Child Support Grant.