Are the effects of teenage pregnancy on the education of girls being addressed with sufficient vigour in Kenya?
With statistics indicating that pregnancy accounts for 31 percent* of all school drop-out cases among girls, this is a question that begs asking. A Gender and Education Policy developed in 2003 makes provision for the re-admission of girls who become pregnant while still at school, even allowing them to seek a place at a different institution to the one they originally attended. This is to avoid the girls being stigmatised by their former schoolmates, as a result of pregnancy. However, the policy does not stipulate punitive measures for school principals who refuse to re-admit the girls. “Yes, the readmission strategy has been pronounced, but it has been left at the discretion of the head teachers and school boards to decide whether to re-admit the girls or not. In the event that the head teachers or school boards do not value girls’ education, then the girls seeking re-admission suffer,” said Eliud Kinuthia, programmes director at the Kenyan chapter of the Forum for African Women Educ
