The Extent of Re-Integration and Retention of School-Aged Mothers into the Formal School System in the West Mamprusi Municipality, Ghana

Abstract

The teenage girl faces several challenges as she attempts to move up the educational ladder. She is vulnerable to violence and susceptible to socio-cultural hindrances that pin down her educational ambitions. Several girls go through child labour, discrimination, early marriages and teenage pregnancy. The effect of teenage pregnancy includes among others, dismissal from home and school-dropout. In recognition of teenage pregnancy as a factor undermining female education in Ghana, the government through the Ghana Education Service formulated “The Ghana Education Service back to school campaign and re-entry policy” to re-admit female students after childbirth into the formal school system. This re-entry directive seeks to guarantee pregnant girls’ access to education after child birth. The primary objective of the study was to assess the re-integration and retention of school-aged mothers into the formal school system in the West Mamprusi Municipality. The study adopted the mixed method in a descriptive research design to collect and analyze data. Primary data was collected from 100 respondents including students, teachers, parents, among others. Data was collected using the key informant interviews, focus group discussion and questionnaires. The study revealed that all the respondents including 59% and 64% of the school-aged mothers agreed that the GES and the schools in the West Mamprusi Municipality played the role of awareness creation and sensitization on the re-entry policy as well as provision of guidance counselling services in schools for students. Using the Kendell Coefficient of Concordant ranking, it was revealed that the top three psycho-social challenges faced by school-aged mothers were maltreatment and discrimination, Childcare problems and learning difficulties with average mean score of 1.5, 1.6 and 1.6 respectively. School-aged mothers’ decision to return to school after child birth as indicated by the school-aged mothers was influenced largely by their personal ambitions (80%), pressure from their parents (70%) and support from NGOs (86%). Provision of basic Teaching and Learning Materials, sex education and motivational schemes were measures put in place by the GES and schools to retain school-aged mothers. The study recommended among other things that childcare facilities should be provided in schools to take care of school-aged mothers’ children to enable them concentrate on their studies.