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https://www.devex.com/news/does-getting-pregnant-cause-girls-to-drop-out-of-school-85810
Schoolgirl Pregnancy & Education Dropout – Variables to Address for Specific Solutions
Investing the time and resources to understand the causes of
schoolgirl dropout in each setting will pay off with more effective
interventions. Photo by: Ashish Bajracharya / Population Council
By Stephanie
Psaki - 27 March 2015
Does pregnancy really cause girls
to drop out of school? Globally, “schoolgirl pregnancy” is cited as one of the
primary barriers to girls’ education. But the story may not be as simple as it
seems.
Yes, an adolescent girl’s formal
education is usually over the moment she becomes a mother. Laws and culture
often discourage girls from returning to school after giving birth. Unmarried
girls may be pressured to marry the father of the child. Married or not, having
a child can put an adolescent girl under intense financial strain. Finding work
might be the only way to provide for her young family. Going back to school may
feel impossible.
So how do we intervene? What can
be done to support adolescent girls — to help those who want to prevent
pregnancy and stay in school, and to help girls who give birth to continue
their education?
Before intervening, it’s
important to understand the different possible causes of school dropout. Is
pregnancy the only issue? Could there be other factors in a girl’s life that
make her both more likely to become pregnant and more likely to leave school
prematurely?
Picture two countries: We’ll call
them Country A and Country B. In both countries, 25 percent of girls have a
pregnancy before they leave school.
In Country A, premarital sex is
common and contraceptive use is low among adolescent girls; schoolgirl
pregnancies are usually unplanned. In this country, while girls who are
sexually active may differ from their peers who are not, girls who do become
pregnant are just like their sexually active peers who do not: They perform
just as well (or just as poorly) in school, they are just as likely to want to
continue on to secondary school, and their parents have similar incomes.
In other words, if these girls
had not become mothers, they would have remained in school as long as their
peers. The relationship between schoolgirl pregnancy and school dropout in
Country A is similar to patterns that Population
Council research has identified in parts of Malawi and Kenya.
In Country B, adolescent
schoolgirls are having sex, but usually in the context of serious relationships
or marriage. Among girls who are performing poorly in school, and come from
poorer households, pregnancies may be planned — or at least not actively
prevented. Their families may not put a high value on secondary education. They
may perceive fewer opportunities awaiting them if they continue in school.
For all of these reasons, girls
in Country B may well have dropped out of school prematurely even if they did
not become pregnant. The general patterns in Country B are more like what our
research has found in parts of Bangladesh.
The bottom line: In Country A,
pregnancy “causes” school dropout — because sexually active adolescent girls
who get pregnant are similar to peers who do not. In Country B, pregnancy is
not causing school dropout. The girls who are getting pregnant are doing worse
than their counterparts in other ways too.
Addressing schoolgirl pregnancy requires understanding country
contexts.
The solution to the problem of
schoolgirl pregnancy — and to school dropout more broadly — is not
one-size-fits-all. The cause — and remedy — will be different in different
situations. Investing the time and resources to understand the causes of
dropout in each setting will pay off with more effective interventions.
In Country A, effective
interventions would expand access to contraception and abortion services
(depending on local laws) for adolescent girls, including educating girls about
rights and gender norms, delaying sex and using contraception. Creation and
enforcement of policies allowing pregnant girls to stay in school and return to
school after the birth of their child may also improve girls’ education in
these settings.
In Country B, combating school
dropout would require interventions such as financial incentives for poor
families to keep their daughters in school, informal education opportunities
such as tutoring and girls’ groups for those at risk of dropping out, and raising
girls’ and parents’ awareness about the benefits of secondary school education
and delaying marriage.
First lady Michelle Obama and
other luminaries have called recently for bold and creative action to keep
girls in school and give them the opportunities they deserve. Championing
girls’ education is critical. But what’s necessary
for progress is to understand what’s threatening girls’
education so we can take the right measures to address these threats.