Teenage pregnancy is one of the major factors leading to girls dropping out of school especially in developing countries such as South Africa. To address the problem, the South African government has put forward policies which allow for the continued enrolment of learners who could fall pregnant while at school. However, there is evidence that pregnant learners drop out of school even though these policies are in place. Hence this study investigated the perceptions of the school stakeholders on the mainstreaming of pregnant learners and one of the stakeholders is the pregnant learners themselves. This study also aimed to investigate the way pregnant learners were perceived and treated in their schools and the views of the stakeholders on supporting the pregnant learners academically. It also aimed to explore leadership and management implications of the school stakeholders’ perceptions. This study revealed that some of the stakeholders were not aware of the existence of the policy that allows for the mainstreaming of pregnant learners in public schools. Those that indicated that they were aware of it reported to have a fuzzy idea of the policy. It seemed there was no shared understanding of the policy among the stakeholders; as a result the policy was not effectively implemented in the schools. This could also be the reason for the negative attitude shown by some of the school stakeholders to the policy. However, all stakeholders voiced out their opinions about this policy. With regards to the policy implementation they expressed fears that the educators may not be capacitated enough to deal with learner pregnancy and also that the pregnant learners may have a negative influence on other learners. Cultural beliefs and stereotypes seemed to play a role on how the stakeholders perceived the policy that legislated the mainstreaming of pregnant learners.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufh/vital:16181 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Mahlambeni, Ntombikayise Sylvia |
| Publisher | University of Fort Hare, Faculty of Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, M Ed |
| Format | 176 leaves; 30 cm, pdf |
| Rights | University of Fort Hare |
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