1. Discriminatory practices against schooling teen mothers in the Western Cape Agnes Chigona Cape Peninsula University of Technology

2. outline 1. Background 2. Methodology 3. Results 4. conclusion 5. Recommendations

3. Background  Few years ago, girls who fell pregnant were not allowed to continue with their schooling  Policy on managing learner pregnancy in public schools  Despite the guarantee to remain in school, teen mothers face a number of challenges i.e. they feel lonely and not accepted as learners

4. Aim  to find out issues that make teen mothers feel excluded in their education process hence channelling them to their failure to cope and successfully complete their schooling  to suggest measures that could be put in place to facilitate the teen mothers’ learning process

5. Why promoting teen mothers’ education?  Teen mothers and their children are vulnerable groups in our society  They are at critical points in their lives where their living courses may be shaped towards eternal poverty and dependency  Without support for teen mothers to complete their education, they will together with their kids struggle with poverty and its effects

6. Methodology  Qualitative research approach - interviews  Participants were drawn from randomly selected high schools in Cape Town  Participants (interviewees) included: 1. Teen mothers (main participants) 2. Heads of schools 3. Life orientation teachers

7. Results Basing on the results of the survey, five themes that show discriminatory practices against schooling teen mothers were identified:  Prejudices against teen mothers at school “ … many people think when you are a mother and you are still coming to school you have to be always quite and not doing anything like clubbing or hobbies… other people just act like something is wrong with you… they think you are a nobody.” (A grade 10 teen mother) “ … many people think when you are a mother and you are still coming to school you have to be always quite and not doing anything like clubbing or hobbies… other people just act like something is wrong with you… they think you are a nobody.” (A grade 10 teen mother)

8. Results cont. “…others treat you like you are stupid … like sometimes when you ask questions in class they think you did not understand because you were busy thinking about your child… and such negative attitudes makes you feel you should may be never talk in class”. (A grade 12 teen mother)  Teen mothers are not treated as learners with special needs

9. Results cont.  Lack of policies on how to make decisions about absenteeism for teen mother learners  Teachers scolding teen mothers in front of their peers  The discourse of contamination

10. Conclusion  There are discriminatory practice that affect equal access to education of teen mothers  Teen mothers are seen as incapable and unfit for education – negatively affecting the girls’ self esteem  Failure to treat to treat teen mothers as learners with special needs is a big blow to these learners

11. Recommendations There is need to:  Provide special facilities to teen mothers at school e.g. bathrooms breaks, chairs, on-site crèche facilities  Develop policies on how to make decisions about absenteeism for teen mothers in schools

12. Recommendations cont.  Sensitize teachers and fellow learners of teen mothers and the parents of other learners not to make the presence of these girls in public schools unwelcome