Impact of teenage motherhood on the academic performance in public primary schools in Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy and motherhood is a concern in both developed and developing countries and is a complex reality of contemporary society however the re-entry of teenage mothers into the school system continues to demand attention as society's negative attitude towards pregnant girls and teenage mothers persists. Those who do return to school suffer from stigmatisation, ridicule, and abuse from both teachers and other learners. This study sought to investigate the impact of teenage motherhood on the academic performance in public primary schools in Bungoma County. The study was guided by social integration model on student retention in schools whose primary purpose was to explain how the interactions among different individuals within the academic, social systems and the communities which comprised them lead individuals of different characteristics to withdraw from that institution prior to completion. Descriptive survey was adopted for the study and employed both quantitative and qualitative technique where quantitative relies on the principle of verifiability and the researcher wants to obtain a large body of data or to perform statistical analysis in order to produce results that can be generalized to the target population while qualitative involves systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data in order to provide description on selected issues hence the researcher used both techniques in order to maximize the strengths and minimize the limitation of each. The study employed stratified sampling, simple random and purposive sampling. A sample of 35 respondents (teenage mothers) and 3 head teachers from public schools in Kopsiro division were sampled for the study. The research instruments used were questionnaire and interview schedule and document analysis. The semi structured questionnaire were administered to the teenage mothers while closed ended interview schedule were administered to head teachers. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The descriptive analyses was summarized using frequencies, percentages and cross-tabulations. The study found out that education prepares girls for jobs, livelihoods, and raises their self-esteem and that teenage motherhood leads to low educational attainment. The study recommended that by supporting teenage mothers would help them achieve their goals in education.