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New Vision is highlighting the challenge of teenage pregnancy in Uganda, to find a solution to the problem that costs Ugandan taxpayers up to sh250b a year in healthcare. 

Today, Agnes Kyotalengerire examines whether the policy allowing teenage mothers to return to school is working.

The education ministry, in its January 6, 2022 circular, implored schools to allow female learners who had given birth and had breastfed their babies for six months to report back to school. 

In addition to re-entry after giving birth, the guidelines stipulate that pregnant girls should be allowed in school up to three months. 

A year-and-a-half after the guidelines were disseminated, Rosette Nanyanzi, who is the gender technical advisor at the education ministry, says the guidelines are being implemented and particularly in regions where the ministry has been able to document. 

For example, in the Karamoja and West Nile regions, there are good examples of teenage mothers who have managed to return to school. 

About the re-entry guidelines 

Nanyazi says the decision was taken because some schools do not have a clinic and nurses to take care of the pregnant teens. Yet, the pregnancy causes so many body changes that may require the attention of a medical person. 

She further explains that later, the pregnant girl can be allowed to go home and take care of herself for the remaining six months until she gives birth. 

The whole idea is about giving a second chance to the child and to have a good outcome of the pregnancy, Nanyanzi notes, adding that schools should also be in position to conduct pregnancy tests. 

Upon discovering that the child is pregnant, they should invite the parents for a discussion, but also to counsel and encourage them to provide for the young mothers and their new-born babies. 

The guidelines also implore schools to have health committees with the responsibility of handling issues of teenage pregnancy, while guiding and counselling parents. 

In addition, discussions around issues of violence against children are on-going, so as to prevent children from discriminating and bulling each other, Nanyanzia notes. 

Teachers are also encouraged to use inter -responsive methodologies that put into consideration the fact that children are not the same. They have unique needs and challenges, which teachers should be mindful of.

Challenges  

Nanyanzi says there are challenges that they never anticipated. For example, who takes care of the newborn babies while the girls return to school. 

Not all is bloom and doom. Nanyanzi says they are working with the gender ministry to encourage parents to support the implementation of the parenting guidelines that were developed by the ministry. 

“The fact remains that these teenage mothers are still children, especially if they are below 18 years,” she says, adding: “It is upon that background that the role of parents is being emphasised, so that they continue supporting these young mothers so that they can re-enrol in school.” 

A teenage mother during her graduation in computer training.

It is worth noting that as the guidelines allowing teenage mothers to get back to school are being emphasised, we should not forget that the issues that made them become pregnant in the first case are still existing.

For example, the girls still grapple with access to basic needs, such as sanitary pads, knickers, vaseline, books, pens and pencils, among others.

In regard, Nanyanzi says they have continued to engage the gender ministry to sensitise the community on issues of positive parenting and be able to support the adolescents to manoeuvre through this stage of life, and ensure they are not exposed to the vice of teenage pregnancy. 

In the event that the girls become pregnant, then they can be supported. At school level, structures have been strengthened. 

For example, senior women teachers and matrons have been trained and equipped with skills to create a safe and conducive environment for the teenage mothers. Though the country is yet to celebrate, it is a work in progress. Nanyanzi, however, says government has not yet taken a comprehensive study to access the number of girls who have returned to school due to resource constraints. 

Engaging religious leaders 

Nanyanzi notes that in the start, there was resistance, especially from some religious leaders who owned schools. 

However, the team from the gender ministry had to engage them on several occasions, sometimes asking them tough questions. For example, if it was their daughter, what would they do? 

Gradually, the religious-founded schools are enrolling the teenage mothers. It is also provided for in the guidelines that parents can choose to take their daughters to other schools as the case was for Nusurah Nakato, 15. 

Nakato was a Primary Five pupil at Kaserem Primary School in Tingei, Kapchorwa district when she conceived in 2021. Luckily, she had a safe delivery in December, the same year. 

When her baby turned six months, Nakato resumed her studies in the same school. However, she encountered a lot of stigma as fellow pupils always made fun of her being a mother. 

As a result, Nakato had to change schools and enrolled at Kodil Primary school in Kapchorwa district. She is now in P6 and is studying well. 

Nakato’s mother, Maida Asio, a resident of Kaseremu Kamurogo village, Kimalya parish in Kawowo sub-county, is happy that her daughter is back in school. 

She is supportive and takes care of Nakato’s baby while she attends school. Nakato breastfeeds her baby in the evenings and over the weekend. 

The guidelines also stipulate that schools can help identify other schools for learners that have a conducive study environment. Nanyanzi says currently, the programme is failing to realise tangible results because the public considers it to be a brain child of agencies or non-governmental organisations. 

She explains that development partners’ work or agency work is complementing what government should have done. In the meantime, government provides the policy guidance. 

Religious leaders speak out 

The Archdeacon of Eastern Archdeaconry Kampala Diocese, the Rev. Canon. Michael Mukhwana, says the message we should be sending out is “let the girls come back to school after they have delivered.

The idea of girls coming back to school after delivering is understandable. But having pregnant girls sit in class with the rest on a daily is like glossing over the issues and we forget that we are dealing with adolescents.” 

Mukhwana likens the re-entry of pregnant girls to telling the young people that it is okay to get pregnant, after all, you will continue with school. 

He says behaviour needs to be regulated without giving the liberty to children to do anything and get away with it. Mukhwana says “we need a certain level of discipline.” 

One of the things to do is to deny these children the benefits. For example, if the girls are pregnant, they cannot continue with school until they deliver, then they can get back to school. 

Otherwise, it is just contradictory, it becomes difficult to uphold the values of chastity when we are embracing everybody. He says while it is okay for the pregnant girls to go back to school, “in the state of pregnancy how much concentration do we expect from them”?

Schools speak out

Veronica Chelimo, the headteacher of Nabokotom Primary School in Amudat district, says since the guidelines were passed, her school has taken care of four teenage mothers. 

Chelimo explains that three were in Primary Seven and that they will soon be sitting for their Primary Leaving Examinations. 

A teenage mother who was able to get back to school after giving birth.

“Sadly, the fourth has gotten pregnant again and when her pregnancy clocked three months, she went back home to await delivery.” 

She says currently, the babies are grown and the teen mothers leave them at home in the care of relatives. But while the babies were young and breastfeeding, the teenage mothers would leave the babies plus their caregivers at teachers’ quarters. 

The teenage mothers would go to breastfeed them during break time. Chelimo says the school does not provide special diet/meals for the teenage mothers. 

She, however, says the teenage mothers often skip school, especially when the babies are sick or have to take them for routine immunisation. Agnes Acayo, the headteacher of Looro Primary School in Amudat district, says her school allowed two pregnant teenage girls to study until their seventh month of pregnancy. 

While the girls were pregnant, fellow peers would try to bully them. But the school started constantly counselling the pupils during assembly to accept them. 

Additionally, in the beginning, both teachers and parents were against the idea of allowing the pregnant teenage girls in school, reasoning that it is one way of encouraging others to become pregnant. 

However, the school officials had to explain that it was a directive from government to reabsorb the teenage mothers and, gradually, they understood. 

Acayo explains that the girls were in boarding, and that the matrons would accompany them to attend antenatal care. 

After the girls delivered, they were allowed to shift to day section and commute from home. In addition, the school administration encouraged their parents to continuously support the young mothers. 

Even after the girls gave birth, they were allowed back to study. Acayo says the school has made it mandatory to test the girls for pregnancy at the beginning and end of every school term. 

Winnie Muhindo, 16, was a Senior One student at Hima Progressive High School in 2022 when she conceived. 

A resident of Kahende/ Kinyabwamba village, in Kihyo parish, Kasese district, she hid the pregnancy and attended school up to the end, and delivered on May 18, last year. When the baby turned three months, Muhindo was able to return to the same school, and is currently in Senior Two. 

She leaves the baby in the care of her co-wife while she goes to school. However, Muhindo’s challenge is accessing sanitary pads and other personal effects. Besides, her uniform is torn and she has outgrown it. Could that be another driver into another sexual relationship?

The implication

The executive director of Uganda Women’s Network, Ritah Aciro, says teenage mothers should be allowed back in school because government came out with clear guidelines on how to manage pregnant and teen mothers in school. 

Besides, it is their right to education. Additionally, “we should acknowledge that what has happened has been exacerbated by COVID-19 and there is nothing new, this is really unprecedented and there is no short-cut if we want a better future for our country.”

Aciro warns that not allowing the girls in school denies them their fundamental right — the right to education. 

The other consequence is that we are just postponing the problems for the future, as such children are going to be a problem for the country, and not only for their families and themselves. 

In addition, we are never going to hit the SDG target if we do not address the issues of these girls. If the girls are allowed to study, they will provide skilled human capital, which plays a big role in stirring growth and development. 

Girls and women constitute over 51% of that population, Aciro says It is that same population, if not given the quality of education required to be absorbed into the job market, by having the skills and ability for competitiveness, that slows down growth and development targets, she says.

The burden 

The national teenage pregnancy rate has stagnated at 25%, according to the Uganda Health Demographic Survey (UDHS) 2016 report, even with efforts that the country had invested in reducing the figure to 15% by 2020. 

This was a decline from 31%, according to the UDHS 2000 report. The indicators, thereafter, stalled at 25% from 2006 up to 2016. The UDHS results of 2020 are yet to be released. 

Inevitably, Covid-19 compounded the already existing magnitude of the problem arising from school closures, sexual abuse and exploitation of young people, limited access to integrated sexual and reproductive health/HIV/gender-based violence information and services, the increased decline in household incomes and job losses during the Covid-19 lockdown. 

According to the District Health Information system-2, in 2021, the country recorded 31,565 pregnancies every month, which translates into 1,052 pregnancies recorded daily, including 250 children aged below 15 years who got pregnant monthly.

This story was produced with support from WAN-IFRA Women In News Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusive (GEDI) grant.

However, the views are not those of the sponsors.

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