• Schools should be equipped with child care centres and other support programs for pregnant and parenting students.
• Proposal aims at ending discrimination against pregnant schoolgirls and teen mothers.
A lobby group has asked the government to accommodate young mothers with children in school.
Bunge la Wamama Mashinani wants a small number of high schools - preferably boarding - to be equipped with child care centres and other support programmes for pregnant and parenting young mothers.
Further, the schools should be equipped with caregivers who will provide support, such as nursing, feeding and cleaning the infants when the mothers are in class.
"The institutions will have to adapt the way they teach you, the way they assess you, any uniform or dress codes and even the hours the mothers need to attend to make sure young mothers can continue with their education," lobby representative Ruth Mumbi told the Star yesterday.
Mumbi said this will help young mothers proceed with their education without fear of discrimination and having to worry about their children's whereabouts.
"Education is the right of every kid, but despite all that, these young mothers are discriminated against directly and indirectly
This way they opt out of school and to end this sorry state then we need to give them special opportunity to continue with school," Mumbi said.
However, the proposal could hit a stone wall if a draft policy paper that will guide the re-entry of dropouts back to school fails to put this into consideration.
Ministry of Education policy director William Micheni told the Star the government seeks to create equity among learners upon launch of the policy.
However, those wishing to will be required to go back to ordinary schools.
In Kenya, about 11 per cent of teenagers are sexually active before their 15th birthday and at least 47 per cent before 18 – the legal age of consent.
This has made teenage pregnancies one of the leading factors for dropping out among schoolgirls.
Legally, schools are supposed to provide support to help young parents and pregnant teenagers complete their studies.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, 378,400 girls in Kenya between 10 and 19 became pregnant between July 2016 and June 2017.
Data from the ministry's District Health Information System show an estimated 378,497 adolescent girls between 10 and 19 dropped out of school due to pregnancy during that period.
There were 28,932 girls of 10-14 ages and 349,465 girls aged 15-19 who became pregnant.
The counties with the highest number of teenage pregnancies begin with Narok, with 40 per cent, Homa Bay at 33 per cent, West Pokot (29 per cent), Tana River (28 per cent), Nyamira (28 per cent), Samburu (26 per cent), and Migori and Kwale both at 24 per cent.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)