Teenage mothers’ re-entry experiences into Seecondary Schools: a case study of Kakiri Sub County-Wakiso District, Uganda

Abstract

Despite there being Teenage Mothers Re-entry Guidelines in Uganda, teenage mothers’ re-entry has been a major social, economic, and health challenge in the country. Their experiences of re-entry and retention in mainstream secondary schools in Uganda’s rural set-up have not been explored. Thus, this study sought to explore teenage mothers’ re-entry experiences into secondary schools in Kakiri, Sub-County, Wakiso District Uganda. The research objectives were; to examine the factors that influence teenage mothers’ decision to return to school; to explore the social experiences of teenage mothers upon re-entry; and to identify the support systems teenage mothers have upon re-entry into schools. The study was guided by the Ecological Systems Theory by Bronfenbrenner (1979) which looks at a child’s development within the context of the systems of relationships and employed an Interpretivists paradigm and phenomenological research design within the qualitative approach. Using the purposive sampling technique, three schools were selected with five teenage mothers from each school. Qualitative data was generated using focus group discussions and drawings from teenage mothers, which were analyzed thematically. The findings of the study revealed that among the factors that influence teenage mothers’ re-entry into formal education included the stable financial position of their families, parental support for childcare responsibilities, and positive attitude of teenage mother towards education. From the drawings and discussion thereof, it was revealed that teenage mothers experienced stigma, extremely hard times during parenting and being a student, and were largely treated negatively by some unsympathetic teachers, schoolmates, and other community members. However, with these challenges teenage mothers gained support from their mothers, some teachers, siblings, and close friends than the fathers of their babies. The study, therefore, concluded that although teenage mothers experienced challenges during re-entry they received good support from school than that at the community level. The study, therefore, recommended that the schools should strengthen the guidance and counselling department to create a conducive school environment for teenage mothers to be retained in school and integrate life skills programs into the curriculum, and the government should sensitize stakeholders about re-entry guidelines for teenage mothers, promote sexuality education to enable adolescent girls to understand their cycle and the community should embrace the importance of educating the girl child by disregarding social-cultural values about teenage mothers.