The purpose of the study was to investigate the challenges faced by high school managers in dealing with pregnant learners in their schools and also ways of dealing with such challenges in selected Senior Secondary Schools in the Idutywa Education District (IED) in the Eastern Cape Province. The study mainly focused on rural schools. Qualitative research method was used and a Case Study design was used to conduct the study. The sample constituted of 16 high School Management Team (SMT) members from the four chosen high schools. An interview schedule designed by the researcher was used to gather data. The collected data were analysed using codes, segments, categories and themes. The researcher interpreted the data and the findings of the study showed that pregnancy changed the behaviour of female learners as a result, School Management Teams (SMT) found it difficult to deal with pregnant learner behaviours in terms of punishing them or expelling them due to South African Schools Act (1996). The study showed that, the School Management Teams in the four selected high schools felt that there should be parental involvement in schools when dealing with learner behaviours. The study showed that pregnant learners dropout of school before they completed their matriculation and they returned anytime after giving birth and SMT had no choice but to accept them even if they returned in the middle of the year. The study further showed that teachers had to assist pregnant learners by organizing catch up programmes so that they produce good results at the end of the year. According to the findings of the study it was clear that pregnancy really affected school policies in terms of learner discipline, learner absenteeism, school dropout and learner overall results. The researcher recommended that, the Department of Education should formulate a policy on pregnant learners that will not allow pregnant learners to attend school while being pregnant in order to assist School Management Teams in schools. The formulated policy should allow School Management Teams to expel pregnant learners in school.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wsu/vital:18448 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Tyumre, Nocawe |
| Publisher | Walter Sisulu University, Faculty of Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, M Ed |
| Format | ix, 98 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Walter Sisulu University |
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