Daycare nightmare: Teen mums call for centres in schools
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:
- A girl can re-enroll in a different school and the head of her previous school and sub-county director of education is to support her secure a placement.
- Current guidelines are ineffective because they ignore the special needs of a teenage mother such as the care for her newborn.
In 2018, Edna* returned to her school in Msambweni, a coastal town in Kwale County, after delivering a son.
She had also turned 15. Her mother willingly took care of her grandson. In many instances, once an adolescent daughter is impregnated, parents abandon her or force her to marry the perpetrator or old men.
Edna was impregnated by a man in his 30s. Her father wanted to report him to the police but dropped the idea when he thought about the cost of pursuing the case.
As Edna sat in class, her mind was roaming at home, wondering about her son’s wellbeing. Then her mother had no business to help raise an income to buy baby formula. Now she sells fast-food. They depended on her father who did casual work.
“I'd be worried that the baby would be crying. I’d long for a lunch break to go see him,” Edna 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 continued with her education, sat her KCPE exam and scored 223 marks, less than her previous average of 300.
In the case of Mama Baraka*, she is willing to support her daughter who had to take a break from class after being impregnated by a married man. The 15-year-old was also in Class Eight. She delivered three months ago.
Mama Baraka is a widow and says her hustle makes it difficult for her to look after the infant.
“Sometimes I do domestic work. Other times, I go out to look for firewood to sell. This work is hard and sometimes dangerous; you may fall down or a branch can fall on you. I’d not want to risk the life of my grandson,” says Mama Baraka from Ndavaya, Kwale County.
“Schools should have daycare centres to look after the children of girls or offer special cash transfer to the parents of the teenage mothers to look after the babies while their daughters resume learning.”
Also read: Stop stigma against teenage mothers
National Guidelines for School Re-Entry in Early Learning and Basic Education (2020) guarantees teenage mothers and pregnant girls continuity of learning.
A girl can re-enroll in a different school and the head of her previous school and sub-county director of education is to support her secure a placement, the policy states.
“In case a learner becomes pregnant more than once, she shall be allowed re-entry into a learning institution as long as she is within the mandatory schooling age,” it directs.
“Learners who have attained the age of 18 shall be advised to enrol in adult and continuing education or vocational training centres to complete their schooling.”
Joseph Muthuri, an advocate of the High Court and policy analyst, says the guidelines are ineffective in their current state as they fail to take into account the special needs of a teenage mother such as the care for her newborn.
He says without addressing the gaps, many teenage mothers will fall through the gaps, thus defeating the spirit and purpose of the guidelines.
On whether there is a plan to review the policy to address the special needs of teenage mothers such as provision of day care centres, an official at the Ministry of Education responded in the affirmative.
In a text message on Friday, the official said there is a plan to review the guidelines “but not for that purpose,” adding that “we are also doing [a] gender policy review. Some interventions can go there.”
*Names changed to change the identity of the teenage girls.
