Baby daycare in school: New bill could help teen mums balance books and babies
A teenage girl with her child. Teenage mothers and their parents have called for daycare centres in schools to help them focus on their education upon resume learning.
What you need to know:
- If passed, a bill in the Senate will ensure care centres handling teenagers' children are run by personnel qualified to handle child-related illnesses and emergencies, as well as children with special needs.
- The National Guidelines for School Re-Entry in Early Learning and Basic Education guarantees teenage mothers and pregnant girls learning continuity but fails to address the care for their children.
Last year, when I interviewed Edna*, a teen mother in Msambweni, Kwale County, she had a request for the Kenyan government: establishing daycare centres in schools.
She gave birth to a son when she was in Class Eight. Then she was 15 and had been impregnated by a man in his 30s.
She only managed to return to school because her mother offered to look after her son.
As Edna sat in class, her mind roamed at home, wondering about her son’s well-being.
Then her mother had no income to help buy baby formula.
They depended on her father who did casual work around Msambweni.
Now, she sells fast food.
“I’d be so worried that he would be crying out of hunger. I’d long for a lunch break to go see him,” she says.
“I wished he was taken care of within the school compound where I’d pop in, see him and rush back to class.
“My heart would be at peace and I’d concentrate in class.”
Edna sat her KCPE exam and scored 223 marks, less than her previous average of 300.
Well, her wish may come true. Although the National Guidelines for School Re-Entry in Early Learning and Basic Education (2020) guarantees teenage mothers and pregnant girls learning continuity, it fails to address the care for their children.
At the Senate is the Care and Protection of Child Parents Bill (2023) that obligates county governments to establish care centres within or adjacent to public schools to care for the babies as long as they are three years and below.
“In establishing a care centre, a county government shall ensure the day care services delivered at the care centre are affordable,” the bill reads.
If passed, any care centre handling the teenagers' children must be run by personnel qualified to handle child-related illnesses and emergencies, as well as children with special needs.
Already, the bill, sponsored by nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi, has gone through the Second Reading.
Ms Abdillahi told Nation.Africa that the bill is currently being amended by the Standing Committee on Labour and Social Welfare.
It was first introduced in 2019 by nominated Senator Beatrice Kwamboka Makori but never went beyond the First Reading.
Ms Makori was, however, unreachable to put the bill into context. Her known number was no longer in service.
For Ms Abdillahi, her personal experience prompted her to legislate care for the children born to mothers or fathers aged below 18.
“At Form Three, I dropped out of Coast Girls High school (because of pregnancy), but I was lucky I managed to go back,” she told Nation.Africa.
“Many girls don’t have that. They can’t go back to school because they don’t have anyone to take care of their children.”
She said having a law would facilitate funding for the centres in the 47 counties, lifting the burden of care during learning off the shoulders of the teen mothers.
Although teenage pregnancy in the country has reduced by an overall 3.2 per cent in the past eight years, in some counties, the prevalence has increased to triple the national average.
The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows that the percentage of adolescents who have begun childbearing dropped to 14.9 per cent in 2022 from 18.1 per cent in 2014.
But in Samburu, the rates rose to 50.1 per cent from 25.7 per cent in 2014.
Marsabit, too, had a jump in the numbers from 16.6 per cent in 2014 to 29.4 per cent in 2018, as did Meru, whose rates rose from 19.9 per cent to 23.6 per cent.
Nevertheless, other counties recorded a drop, including West Pokot (36.3 per cent to 28.6 per cent), Narok (40.4 per cent to 28.1 per cent), and Homa Bay (33.3 per cent to 23.2 per cent).
While the care centres would come to the rescue of teenage mothers, the stigma may deter them from resuming learning.
Joash Nyagaya, Teenage Sensitisation Organisation chief executive officer, recommended providing care centres and sensitising teachers and learners to the care for teen mothers.
“Some girls get pregnant after defilement or forced marriages, and they have every right to education. This is something that teachers and learners should know to stop stigmatising adolescents who have children,” he told Nation.Africaon Wednesday last week.
*Name changed to protect the girl's identity.
