A research report submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University
of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Education by combination of coursework and research.
Johannesburg, 2016. / As a fulfillment to the Constitutional obligation which is to offer education as human right to
everyone, Lesotho has introduced free primary education in schools. This is also a commitment
to the Education For All movement. Despite the initiative the country has taken, there are some
vulnerable groups of children who are deprived of their right to education. These include girls
who fall pregnant while still pursuing their studies. These girls are faced with challenges which
include being expelled from school when they fall pregnant. Those who are allowed to continue
their studies, they experience marginalisation that may result into exclusion from school. This
qualitative study has therefore investigated marginalisation that is experienced by the girls who
fall pregnant while still at high school in the Maseru district of Lesotho. The study was
conducted through interviews with teachers, pregnant girls, and girls who have babies and still
in school, and girls who should be in school, but have been asked to leave school. The findings
revealed that girls in schools and out of school are marginalised for similar and different
reasons by their teachers, parents and peers. Teachers use language and labeling which
humiliate these girls while parents neglect their daughters when they fall pregnant. Rejection
by peers has also been revealed in this study. All these marginalisation experiences could be
attributed to the silence of the Lesotho Educational Act about teenage pregnancy. Schools in
the sample have different policies with regard to teenage pregnancy. As a result some schools
exclude teenage mothers from education. / MT2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/22681 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Thekiso, Maelia Anna |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (xi, 91 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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