Re-entry of pregnant girls and teenage mothers to school: a critical policy and strategy brief

Policies & Strategies
Accra
Africa Education Watch
2022
8 p.
Organizations

The Pre-Tertiary Education Act of 2020 guarantees the right to free compulsory universal basic education for every Ghanaian child. Ghana continues to demonstrate its commitment to this law through the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy and related policies leading to a net enrolment of 87% at the primary level. In spite of the progress, there still remain challenges with school dropouts, which continue to slow the progress. Currently, there are over 192,500 school dropouts in Ghana, with over 102,000 being girls. Up to 30% of school dropouts occurring among girls is attributed to teenage pregnancy emanating from social and economic factors. The Ministry of Health reports 555,575 teenage pregnancies between 2016 and 2020, with 109,865 teenage pregnancies in 2020 alone. The impact of the closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic on education can never be overemphasized, and teenage girls are the most affected. A COVID-19 School Re-opening report by Africa Education Watch during their monitoring of the partial re-opening of schools for finalists indicates that, 20% of schools recorded between 1-3 girls not returning to school due to teenage pregnancy and migration. This policy brief reviews the implementation of the Re-entry Policy for pregnant girls and teenage mothers by the Ghana Education Service (GES).

Regions
Resource types
Languages
Record created by
IIEP