Books and Babies Pregnancy and young parents in schools docx

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Edited by Robert Morrell,
Deevia Bhana and Tamara Shefer
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Published by HSRC Press
Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
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First published 2012
ISBN (soft cover) 978-0-7969-2365-3
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Contents
Tables vii
Acronyms and abbreviations ix
Preface xi
1 Pregnancy and parenthood in South African schools 1
Robert Morrell, Deevia Bhana and Tamara Shefer
SECTION A Principals, teachers and the ‘problem’ of pregnancy and parenting
Introduction 31
Deevia Bhana
2 School principals and their responses to the rights and needs of pregnant
andparenting learners 35
Lindsay Clowes, Toni D’Amant and Vuyo Nkani
3 Teacher responses to pregnancy and young parents in schools 49
Deevia Bhana and Sisa Ngabaza
SECTION B Learner attitudes to pregnancy, parents and gender equality:
Aquantitative analysis
Introduction 63
Richard Devey and Robert Morrell
4 Mothers, fathers and carers: Learner involvement in care work 75
Robert Morrell and Richard Devey
5 Mothers: yes, babies: no – Peer attitudes towards young learner parents 87
Richard Devey and Robert Morrell
6 Gender and parenting: Challenging traditional roles? 103
Richard Devey and Robert Morrell
SECTION C Being a learner, being a parent: School experiences
Introduction 121
Tamara Shefer
7 ‘It isn’t easy’: Young parents talk of their school experiences 127

Tamara Shefer, Deevia Bhana, Robert Morrell, Ntsiki Manzini
andNokuthulaMasuku
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8 Being a young parent: The gendered sharing of care work 149
Tamara Shefer and Elron Fouten
9 Conclusion: Policy implications and issues for the future 169
Deevia Bhana, Tamara Shefer and Robert Morrell
10 Being a learner parent: A visual essay 177
Cedric Nunn
Author biographies and reflections on parenthood 197
Appendix 1: Overview of participating schools 207
Appendix 2: Attitude to parents survey 2006 209
References 221
Index 233
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Tables
Table B.1 Number and percentage of respondents by school type 68
Table B.2 Number and percentage of respondents by school 69
Table B.3 Number and percentage of respondents by grade 69
Table B.4 Frequency and percentage of respondents by gender 70
Table B.5 Frequency and percentage of respondents by race group 70
Table B.6 Demographic indicators by school type and school 70
Table 4.1 Number and percentage of youth aged 17–19 attending school,
by gender 76
Table 4.2 Number and percentage of youth aged 17–19 attending school,
by race group 76
Table 4.3 Reasons given by youth aged 17–19 for leaving school, by gender 77
Table 4.4 Reasons given by youth aged 17–19 for leaving school, by race
group 78

Table 4.5 Number and percentage of respondents who are parents, prospective
parents and substitute parents, by gender 80
Table 4.6 Number and percentage of learners who are parents, prospective
parents and substitute parents, by race group 80
Table 4.7 Number and percentage of learners who are parents, prospective
parents and substitute parents, by school type 81
Table 4.8 Number and percentage of learners who are parents, prospective
parents and substitute parents, by gender and race group 82
Table 4.9 Number and percentage of respondents who are parents, prospective
parents and substitute parents, by gender and school type 83
Table 4.10 Status of mother and father of learner, by gender 84
Table 4.11 Status of mother and father of learner, by race group 85
Table 4.12 Presence of siblings in home of learner, by gender 85
Table 4.13 Presence of siblings in home of learner, by race group 86
Table 5.1 Mean scores of learners to attitude statements on parent learners,
by gender 93
Table 5.2 Mean scores of learners to attitude statements on parent learners,
by race group and ordered from strongest agreement to strongest
disagreement 96
Table 5.3 Mean scores of learners to attitude statements on learner parents,
by parent status 99
Table 5.4 Mean scores of African learners to attitude statements on parent
learners, by gender 100
Table 6.1 Learner responses to attitude statements on gender 104
Table 6.2 Correlation between responses to ‘A father can bring up children on
his own’ and ‘A mother can bring up children on her own’ 106
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Table 6.3 Mean scores of learners to attitude statements on gender,
by gender 109

Table 6.4 Mean scores of responses to attitude statements on gender, by
race group 113
Table 6.5 Mean bias score of male and female respondents 114
Table 6.6 Mean bias score by gender and race group 114
Table 6.7 African learners’ responses to attitude statements on gender,
by gender 116

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Acronyms and abbreviations
ABC Abstain, Be faithful, Condomise
ANC African National Congress
CSG Child support grant
DHS South African Demographic and Health Survey
EMIS Education Management Information System
GETT Gender Equity Task Team
HoD House of Delegates
HoR House of Representatives
KZN KwaZulu-Natal
MDG Millennium Development Goal
SANPAD South Africa–Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives
in Development
SASA South African Schools Act (No. 84 of 1996)
UKZN University of KwaZulu-Natal
UN United Nations
UWC University of the Western Cape
WC Western Cape
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Preface
This book is the result of a five-year collaborative research project funded by the
South Africa–Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development
(SANPAD). It began in 2005 when an initial grant was made. The project initially
involved three universities. The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) was the lead
institution, and was partnered in South Africa by the University of the Western
Cape (UWC), and in the Netherlands by Erasmus University (represented by Dr
Karin Willemse). A research team was built around Robert Morrell and Deevia
Bhana (UKZN) and Tamara Shefer (UWC). In time, it involved a large number
of postgraduate students and lecturers, some of whom are authors of the chapters
contained in this book. Others helped with the data collection. We name and thank
them all at the end of this preface.
The project was influenced by Robert’s earlier work on fatherhood (with Linda
Richter and the HSRC) (see Richter & Morrell 2006), and Deevia and Tamara’s
interest in gender, young people and schooling, and sought to examine the impact
of policy developments on the fortunes of pregnant girls and young mothers and
fathers who were still learners pursuing their studies at secondary school. The most
important of these developments was the passage of the South African Constitution
with its Bill of Rights (1996). Laws and policies, including the South African Schools
Act (No. 84 of 1996), flowed from the establishment of this human rights framework.
The intention of legislation has been to guarantee rights to education for all children
up to the age of 16 years, and to ensure that these rights cannot be infringed upon
by discriminatory acts, such as expelling pregnant learners or denying young parents
access to schools.
The research project had the explicit intention of not only creating awareness of
the situation in schools based on gender-sensitive research, but also contributing to
policy debate about how to approach the thorny issue of how best to support parent
learners and pregnant girls in schools.
The project was informed throughout by feminist theory, which was used to
analyse the gendered dynamics of the situations that our research identified. We

were explicitly concerned to ask the questions: In what way does gender equality or
inequality impact on the lives of pregnant girls and young parents? What do schools
do to promote gender equality in the realm of pregnancy and parenthood? Our
research reflected the expertise and interests of the research team (set out in more
detail in the author biographies at the back of this book), all of whom have academic
training and research involvement in the field of gender, reproductive health and
education in South Africa.
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xii
Most of the research data was collected in 2006, with the remaining data collection
taking place in the first half of 2007. The process of collecting the data was paralleled
and supported by the creation of a research team across the two centres (Durban
and Cape Town). Annual gatherings were held at Noordhoek (Cape Town) and Salt
Rock and Umzumbe (KwaZulu-Natal). As well as the three main researchers (and
editors of this book) the team included Cedric Nunn, a local KZN photographer,
who was commissioned to take photographs of young parents. In the course of
2006 he photographed school-going parents whom he identified in both rural
and urban settings in KZN. At the beginning of 2007 he visited Cape Town and
also took photographs there. The photographs gave colour and light to our study,
and energised the research project as a whole. We consider the photographs to be
an indispensable part of our work, along the lines of the journalistic aphorism, ‘a
photograph is worth a thousand words’. In 2006 and 2007, Karin Willemse, our
Dutch partner from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, visited South Africa to help
with issues of methodology, and to assist with capacity building by working with
doctoral students who were participating in the project.
The analysis of the data and the writing of the manuscript began in 2008 and were
completed in 2010.
From the start of the project, we included emerging researchers (particularly
doctoral students) in the data collection and writing. At each of the workshops, a
number of our students were present and contributed enthusiastically and helpfully.

Not all stayed with the project from start to finish. Indeed, the project was marked
by a lot of movement in the research team. Relebohile Moletsane left UKZN for
the HSRC, and was unable to continue in the project. Richard Devey left UKZN to
take up a position at the University of Johannesburg, and Robert Morrell took up
a position at the University of Cape Town at the beginning of 2010. It is with great
regret that we note Karin Willemse’s absence from the list of authors. Karin gave
the project a lot of support, but the tragic death of her husband in 2006 made it
increasingly difficult and then impossible for her to remain within the project as a
central participant. Lindsay Clowes from UWC was a member of the team from the
start and leads one chapter. UKZN doctoral students Vijay Hamlall, Claire Gaillard-
Thurston and Bronwynne Anderson were all important participants, although each
ultimately elected not to be involved in the writing stage. Two other UKZN doctoral
students, Nokuthula Masuku and Toni D’Amant, were responsible, respectively, for
interviewing learners for Section C of the book and school principals in Section A.
UWC doctoral candidate Sisa Ngabaza, and Elron Fouten, a junior lecturer in UWC’s
Department of Psychology (and now a member of staff at Rhodes University’s
Psychology Department), were responsible for the data collection in the Western
Cape, and helped write the chapters.
This book is designed as a monograph, a treatise on a specific subject. It presents a
set of arguments on the school context and experiences of pregnant girls and young
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xiii
parents based on data generated in two specified locations in Durban and Cape
Town. In order, however, to accommodate the diverse set of contributions made to
the project by members of the research team (particularly the emerging researcher
doctoral students), the book takes the form of an edited volume. Each chapter has a
number of authors, and in this way we have been able to include a large number of
writers. Unlike most edited volumes, however, this book has coherence and a set of
arguments that run from start to finish and address the central research questions.
Thanks

First, we would like to thank SANPAD for funding this project. Without this
support there would be no research data and no manuscript. We would specifically
like to thank Anshu Padayachee, Sundran Govender, Mervyn Reddy and Shernice
Soobramoney of SANPAD. Through the SANPAD Research Capacity Initiative, a
number of UKZN doctoral students also received invaluable support. In this regard,
we would like to record our thanks to Alan Brimer.
We would also like to thank the National Research Foundation for its financial
support.
At UKZN, the support of Arvin Gareeb in the Finance Office was important, and
without it we would probably still be puzzling over figures in the annual financial
statements that didn’t add up.
At UWC we would like to acknowledge the administrative assistance of Charlene
Taillard, secretary to the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies.
In the final stages of preparing and editing this manuscript we received the
magnificent assistance of Anna Strebel. The production process was made easier
by the gracious and efficient service of HSRC Press staff Roshan Cader and Inga
Norenius, and the copy-editor, Mark Ronan.
We also thank Lynda de Maresa, Elron Fouten and Sisa Ngabaza, who helped with
the distribution of questionnaires, as well as Bronwynne Anderson, Toni D’Amant,
Elron Fouten, Claire Gaillard-Thurston, Vijay Hamlall, Saras Naidoo, Sisa Ngabaza
and Phillipa Pierce, who helped with the focus groups. For doing the transcriptions/
assisting with the analysis, we gratefully acknowledge Bronwynne Anderson, Toni
D’Amant, Geraldine Dyason, Claire Gaillard-Thurston, Vijay Hamlall, Nokuthula
Masuku, Sthe Mcambi, Saras Naidoo, Phillipa Pierce and Lincoln Theo.
On a personal note, Robert would like to record his love and thanks to his wife,
Monica Fairall. Monica died of cancer on 21 June 2009 as the manuscript of this
book was taking shape. She was a source of unconditional love, the epitome of
generosity, grace and caring. As a broadcaster and journalist, Monica touched the
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xiv

lives of many people. She was renowned for her ability to listen and for her gentle
acceptance. In Monica, many people found the friend that they longed to have.
Monica’s approach to life could stand as a model for how teachers might relate to
pregnant girls and young parents, assailed with worry and seeking a refuge in the
turbulent seas of their young lives.
Deevia Bhana records her thanks to her family, and particularly to her sons, Adiel
and Nikhil, who might one day become fathers.
Tamara Shefer thanks her family, especially Cameron, Lee and Maya, for their
tolerance of her distracted parenting, and always inspiring hope for the future.
Robert Morrell
Deevia Bhana
Tamara Shefer
February 2011
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1
Pregnancy and parenthood in South
African schools
Robert Morrell, Deevia Bhana and Tamara Shefer
In some countries, particularly in the global north, pregnancy among learners is rare
and the news of a girl getting pregnant while still at school can excite attention or even
policy debate. In other parts of the world, pregnancy among teenagers is common.
In South African schools, pregnancy is a frequent media headline, not because it is
rare, but because the extent remains dramatic. A 2010 newspaper story, for example,
was headlined ‘Sexual abuse rampant at rural schools’. The focus of the story was
teachers abusing female students. Citing a 2008 report on one school district in the
province of Mpumalanga, it reports that 1 052 girls from 110 high schools and 58
primary schools had become pregnant (Mail & Guardian 15–21 October 2010). By
any standards, these numbers are high. Cases of pregnancies in school are not rare
in South Africa, even though the overall national rate is falling. In the most recent
available official report, the Department of Education puts the number of learners

who became pregnant in 2007 at 49 636. The highest proportion of these learners
was in KwaZulu-Natal (14 246). In the Western Cape 2 179 learners got pregnant
(DoE 2010). One of the key questions that we ask and answer in this book is how do
learners cope with pregnancy and, subsequently, parenthood at school?
One of the arguments we make in this book is that pregnancy and parenthood
are important issues for schools, learners, families and parents to acknowledge
and address. There are two reasons for our position. First, the school environment
generally, and learners particularly, as well as their families and communities,
areaffected by pregnancy and parenting. This is not to say that all learners become
pregnant or young parents. Many female learners will go through school without
becoming pregnant. Although we do not have any figures, it is likely that most
boys will end schooling without becoming fathers. And yet all learners have some
interest in parenting and pregnancy. In the most general sense, all children have
parents and thus experience parenting. Many learners engage in forms of care work
(frombabysitting to more active and intensive forms of childcare). And most learners
at some or other time are aware of or interact with a girl who gets pregnant or a boy
who has fathered a child. The learners’ responses, as well as those of the schools and
broader community, may have a positive impact on their experience or may serve to
impede their progress. And all learners are subject to educational policies that oblige
them not to discriminate against fellow learners, and which ostensibly provide policy
protection for pregnant and parenting learners.
The second reason for arguing that pregnancy and parenthood are important
concerns in schools is that they crystallise issues of gender and patterns of gender
1
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inequality. Schools have a constitutional obligation to promote gender equality.
Childbearing and parenting are highly gendered practices where the labour
and responsibility fall largely on women. Internationally there is a movement to

include men as fully as possible in the process of childbirth, before, during and
after it. Involving fathers in these processes challenges the gendered division of
childcare, provides opportunities for new gendered identities to emerge and can
provide practical support to mothers. In the case of schooling, such support has the
potential to help young mothers complete their schooling, and thus reduce the risk
of childbirth placing a cap on their adult work lives and ambitions.
In the international context, it is commonly acknowledged that pregnancy and
parenthood have negative impacts for young females. It is for this reason that
teenage pregnancy is approached as a challenge in three of the eight UN Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) (accepted in 2000, with the goal of achievement set for
2015). In the area of maternal health, for example, it is noted that the goal is impeded
where progress has stalled in reducing the number of teenage pregnancies, putting
more young mothers at risk, and where poverty and lack of education perpetuate
high adolescent birth rates. In the area of gender equality, according to the UN,
‘[f]or girls in some regions, education remains elusive’. In terms of the goal of
combating HIV/AIDS, ‘[d]isparities are found in condom use by women and men
and among those from the richest and poorest households’.
1
As the MDGs indicate,
teenage pregnancy and its corollary, young parenthood, are a particular problem
when there is deprivation. Its unfolding is highly gendered and it is young mothers
who are most affected. There is, however, an increasing realisation that the biological
fathers, particularly if they are also learners, should be involved in all responses to
the gender inequalities that are consequent.
Since 1994 and the first democratic election, South Africa has developed an extensive
body of law and policy that incorporates the Constitution’s Bill of Rights and develops
a human rights culture. In 1996 the South African Schools Act (No. 84 of 1996)
(SASA) was an important moment in translating this commitment into the schooling
environment. The Act banned corporal punishment, developed democratic school-
governance structures and extended the rights of learners so that they no longer had

to suffer the fate of arbitrary exclusion, among other things. Before the Act it had been
quite legal (and common) for pregnant learners to be expelled.
The Act has had some impact, but controversies concerning some of its provisions
continue. For example, in Mpumalanga teachers insisted that after six months of
pregnancy, learners should attend school accompanied by a midwife, as the teachers
were not prepared to act as midwives (Sunday Times 29 November 2010). The
difficulty of interpreting the Act has resulted in the focus increasingly falling on how
best to implement it (a question of monitoring and observation) and how to create
mechanisms that more precisely specify the processes by which the goals of the Act
can be achieved.
In this book we examine how learners, their teachers and school principals respond
to the presence of pregnant girls and young parents. Our approach is to shine a
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gendered light onto their attitudes and practices in order to show how gender creates
different expectations and experiences for young mothers and fathers, and how
young mothers are generally left with the greatest burden of responsibility. The book
is based on research conducted in secondary schools in Durban and Cape Town.
Its starting point is a global feminist corpus of literature that stresses how gender
inequality is manifested in contexts of pregnancy and disadvantages girls – in some
instances ending their schooling summarily, and in others lowering the ceiling of
professional, post-school advancement and dramatically reducing earning capacity
(Hattery 2001; Lesko 2001; Macleod & Tracey 2010; O’Reilly 2008). Pregnancy is
also associated with coercive sexual practices, such as rape and the inability to insist
on condoms, and is often, but not always, a symptom of gender inequality. On the
other hand, there is growing emphasis on the importance of parenting as a point of
intervention for gender-equality interventions (e.g. to address the gendered division
of care work, to support women in this work and to engage men in transformative
masculinity work), and to offer protection of the rights of children. Increasingly, the

importance of fathers and the role of fatherhood have been recognised (Coltrane,
1994).
In a national context the book sets out to examine the situation of pregnant learners
and young parents who are still studying and trying to complete their schooling.
The book has as its backdrop the emergence of policies designed to assist young
parents and pregnant learners at school. The concern of the book is to document the
experiences of school managers, teachers, learners and the young parents themselves.
In this respect, this book is about the implementation – or lack of implementation –
of existing policy and law.
This chapter introduces the study by briefly locating it within the broad framework
of women’s and girls’ rights before elaborating on the specific context of the study,
including the demographics of teenage pregnancy and parenting, the policy framework
and the social and material context of pregnancy, parenting and schooling.
Locating the study: Theoretical and contextual framework of
gender equality
International work by feminist researchers, as well as initiatives that may be included
under the broad rubric of gender and development work, has highlighted the
challenges facing girls and women at multiple sites in their lives. Although we no
longer view gender as existing in isolation, but as intersecting in complex ways with
other forms of social identity and power relations (Hill Collins 1990; Hooks 1984),
it is still widely assumed that we continue to live in a system of global patriarchy
(Connell 2000; Walby 1990). It is also evident that most boys and men do not benefit
from patriarchy, and dominant forms of being a man have been shown to engender
a wide range of risks for boys and men (Hearn 2007). For example, in South Africa,
young men are far more vulnerable to being murdered by other men than women are
(Seedat et al. 2009). Nonetheless, the way in which current normative gender roles
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are constructed in most societies means that women and girls are primarily the ones

at the receiving end of social and economic disadvantage.
Gender inequalities are manifested at all levels in our society and in all cultural
practices from birth to burial. Schooling is a primary terrain for the reproduction
and contestation of normative gender roles and stereotypes. Schooling also often
reflects social hierarchies and endorses unequal gender power relations. This is
always complex and contains contradictions and opportunities within multiple
processes for ‘doing gender differently’ and more equitably. We argue that the ways
in which pregnancy and parenting are responded to at school generally reflect some
of the dominant discourses in society about gender in broader society – in particular,
what it is to be a teenager with respect to sexuality; what it is to be a boy or a girl;
and what it is to be a pregnant and parenting learner. However, as we show, there are
also signs of gender change and shifts in attitude and practice.
In this book we show that policy has a limited capacity to change the experiences
of learners who happen to be pregnant or young parents. When policy is converted
into school practice it necessarily reflects the moral and gendered perspectives of
teachers and school authorities. In schools, policy is interpreted in multiple ways
and can sometimes be used to exclude rather than include, if not interpreted in a
way that is sensitive to gender and supportive. When policy is translated into the
school environment it does make a difference, though not always in the ways that
were intended by policy-makers. Schooling practices are profoundly gendered, as is
the entire process of becoming a mother or father and of being a parent learner. The
gendering of pregnancy and parenting is evident on various levels. It is generally the
biological mother who suffers the consequences of being pregnant, one of which is
being ostracised by other learners, teachers and even family members.
The experience of pregnant and parent learners is greatly influenced by ‘stakeholders’,
particularly school managers, teachers, other learners and family. Quite separate
from the intention of new laws, all stakeholders bring with them gendered identities
and moralities (prejudices, inclinations) and practices (both at school and beyond).
This means that some learners have excellent support systems in place, and others
have none. There are issues of inclusion and exclusion in the question of becoming

and being a parent. Young females who get pregnant may not have much choice,
but how they experience pregnancy, birth and parenting – and how young fathers
experience it – will be marked by a series of factors unrelated to school. For example,
the Zulu custom of inhlawulo (which demands payment from a young father’s family
for impregnating a girl in a context where formal bridewealth practices have not
been conducted between the families) excludes fathers from being involved in the
upbringing of the child (Hunter 2010). The availability of parental or grandparental
support (which permits girls to attend school, but may also mean they have little
connection with their children) is also often a critical factor. These factors affect the
ability of young parents to succeed at school, as do a variety of intra-school practices,
including, for example, the willingness of school principals to accommodate and
support pregnant and/or parent learners.
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Locating the study: Pregnancy, parenting and schooling
Teenage pregnancy is common in South Africa. Nearly a third of women have
children before they reach the age of 20. Since education is compulsory until the age
of 16, and many children continue to attend school until they are 20 and beyond,
schools frequently encounter pregnancy and parenthood among learners.
Pregnancy and parenthood have always posed challenges for schooling. Pregnancy
reveals the sexual maturity and sexual activity of a girl, and in puritan contexts
this was frowned upon (Mkhwanazi 2010). In the past, being pregnant or a parent
was often grounds for expulsion from school in South Africa and in other African
countries, such as Kenya (Mungai 2002). Teachers as well as learners have always felt
the weight of gender prejudice. Female teachers used to be moved from permanent
to temporary staff when they got married, and when maternity leave was granted,
it was unpaid. Unmarried mothers were not eligible for maternity leave (Kotecha
1994).
Becoming a parent used to be slightly less problematic insofar as it affected the

school life of a learner. In most cases, the existence of a child was concealed; it was
looked after by a member of the extended family, and was thus no intrusion in the
school’s routine. This meant that young parents could return to school with less
fear of sanction by the school, though invariably a pregnant girl would enrol at a
different school once she had given birth to avoid gossip and the judgemental gaze of
teachers. Mothers were more likely to be the object of curiosity or sanction, as fathers
were seldom identified and seldom associated themselves with the responsibility of
childcare.
There is no doubt that in some schools pregnancy and young parenthood is still ‘a
problem’ – for the learners, who find themselves with the dual load of being a learner
and becoming and being a parent; for teachers, who are called upon to respond to
the changing needs of these learners; but also for a wider public concerned with the
symbolic meaning of young female learners becoming pregnant. Take the example
of the Ohlange Institute, a school founded in Durban in 1891 by John Dube, the first
ANC president. It attracted national newspaper coverage in June 2009: ‘Last year
(2008), at least four schoolgirls in almost each of the 25 classes were pregnant. The
previous year, 15 matric pupils gave birth. Already this year, more than 20 pupils are
pregnant, some for the second time’ (Sunday Times 7 June 2009).
National concern is aroused by the continued relatively high rate of teenage pregnancy
and parenting for a variety of reasons. These include the notion that becoming
pregnant is often a life-changing and limiting experience for young females. Another
is that some of the girls who get pregnant are not yet 16, and, therefore, pregnancy
will have been the result of statutory rape. A further consideration is that teachers
are in some instances responsible for learner pregnancies and there is increasing
discomfort about (as well as official condemnation of) sexual relations between
teachers and learners. A final reason is moral panic over what is viewed as a decline
in moral values and the ‘looseness’ of the youth’s sexual mores – a panic that has
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been fuelled by high HIV infection rates among young people. Public concern is also
occasioned by schools that ignore policy and law, and continue to expel learners on
the grounds of pregnancy. In The Mercury (8 May 2009), a Durban daily newspaper,
it was reported that 13 pregnant girls were expelled from a local township school,
allegedly as a response to the school’s dismal matriculation pass rate.
The policy framework of pregnancy and parenting in South Africa
In South Africa, formal commitment to the rights of women specifically, and to
gender equality more broadly, has influenced law-making and policy. The SASA
does not explicitly mention the treatment of pregnant learners or young parents, but
its provisions cover this category of learner. The Act makes provision for compulsory
attendance of all children ‘until the last school day of the year in which such learner
reaches the age of fifteen years or the ninth grade, whichever occurs first’ (South
African Schools Act [No. 84 of 1996, Chapter 2, 3(1)]) and dramatically limits a
school’s rights to expel learners. The only provision that exists to ‘permit’ pregnant
learners or young parents to be away from school (if they are under 16) is if they
get exemption: ‘A Head of Department may exempt a learner entirely, partially or
conditionally from compulsory school attendance if it is in the best interests of the
learner’ (South African Schools Act [No. 84 of 1996, Chapter 2, 4(1)]). The legal
situation of pregnant learners and young parents below the age of 16 is, therefore,
quite clear. They should be at school unless considerations of health demand
otherwise. The situation is rendered more complicated in the case of learners over
the age of 16, as many continue to attend school into their 20s, but at this age cannot
be legally compelled to attend and may voluntarily withdraw at any point. On the
other hand, a learner who is pregnant (or is a young parent) and who is over the age
of 16 may not be summarily expelled. It appears that many schools observe the spirit
of the law. Conversely, however, it is not uncommon for pregnant girls and young
parents to complain about official hostility towards them at school (Panday et al.
2009).
Despite the passage of the law in 1996, the Gender Equity Task Team (GETT),
established to examine the state of gender in South African education and to make

suggestions about how to achieve gender equality, recognised the importance of
being more explicit about the position of pregnant learners and young mothers.
It recommended that the Department of Education ‘[f]acilitate the schooling of
pregnant adolescents and young mothers, and provide affordable and accessible
childcare facilities’ (Wolpe et al. 1997: 230). Despite this recommendation, there
are few formal guidelines for schools to direct their approach to young parents and
pregnant learners. And the curious omission of any mention of young fathers by
GETT continues to be a blind spot in the way that schools deal with young parents.
Up until the publication of Measures for the prevention and management of learner
pregnancy (DoE 2007), managers, teachers and learners had effectively been expected
to interpret the law as best they could. The 2007 document was designed to make
explicit the rights and obligations of schools, teachers and learners. Even though the
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document was implemented after much of the data for this study had been collected,
it gives a good insight into government thinking and so we summarise the document
at some length here.
The document’s focus is the prevention of pregnancy. In this regard, it draws heavily
on official government HIV policy, which endorses ABC (Abstain, Be faithful,
Condomise). Among the opening phrases is: ‘Children should abstain from engaging
in sexual intercourse’ (DoE 2007: 1). It notes that pregnancy has ‘a far greater impact
on girls than on the boy fathers’ (DoE 2007: 1) and almost grudgingly admits that
‘unplanned pregnancies may occur’ (DoE 2007: 2). The document’s emphasis on
prevention, although understandable in the context of high HIV infection rates,
has the unfortunate consequence of giving pregnancy and parenthood much less
attention, treating it as a rather uncommon occurrence. As we indicate below, figures
suggest that the scale of the problem in South Africa’s schools is still vast.
The primary approach of the document is to educate learners and teachers. Learners
should be taught to ‘understand and exercise their rights and responsibilities in

regard to healthy lifestyles’ (DoE 2007: 1), while at the same time the right to equality
and education should be protected, as should the rights of ‘the child (including the
newborn child)’ (DoE 2007: 2). The document argues that there are competing
rights – those of the (pregnant) learner and those ‘of other learners’ (DoE 2007: 4).
The document is careful to include learner fathers along with pregnant learners as a
way of ensuring that the approach to the challenges of pregnancy and parenthood is
based on gender equality. Despite an attempt to be specific about the necessary steps
to be taken, the document is in fact vague, stressing that each situation is different
and should be ‘assessed and evaluated on a regular basis’ (DoE 2007: 4).
The guidelines impose a number of responsibilities on learners. If a girl knows (or
suspects) that she is pregnant she is obliged to inform a teacher. The same goes for
another learner ‘who is aware that another learner is pregnant’ (DoE 2007: 5). It is
acknowledged that schools cannot provide medical care, and so the school is obliged
to call on the local health services for pre- and post-natal support. The responsibility
of a school is to ‘strive to ensure the existence of a climate of understanding and
respect in regard to unplanned pregnancies’ (DoE 2007: 6).
The responsibility for parenting is given firmly to learners. It is a weighty responsibility
and ‘a period of up to two years may be necessary for this purpose’. It is specifically
stipulated that ‘[n]o learner should be re-admitted in the same year that they left
school due to pregnancy’ (DoE 2007: 5). On the other hand, schools are impelled to
‘encourage learners to continue with their education prior to and after the delivery
of the baby’ (DoE 2007: 6).
Despite the document’s attempts to erase ambiguity, the guidelines are not clear,
leaving much interpretive discretion with teachers and school managers, particularly
in relation to how long a young mother should be away from school before and after
birth. This particular ruling is a source of difficulty for young mothers because it
delays their progress through the education system, causing them to lag behind
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young fathers. Indeed, anecdotal evidence shows that learners are frequently turned
away from school earlier than they would like – and such reports also emerged in
our study. It is encouraging that there is some recourse for learners in this respect.
For example, on 5 November 2010 the South African Human Rights Commission
reported that a grade-nine learner from Welkom was back in school after being
suspended for being pregnant (Independent Online 2010).
The introduction over 10 years ago of life orientation as a learning area in the
school curriculum has meant that, officially at least, issues of sexuality are now
taught to learners at primary and secondary level. One of the explicit aims of life
orientation has been to reduce sexual risk among learners and, in accordance
with the Department of Health’s ABC policy, the Department of Education has
promoted and disseminated messages that advocate delaying sexual debut, using
contraceptives and reducing the number of sexual partners. Although the primary
goal of this education has been to prevent the transmission of HIV, a secondary
(andoften just as important) goal has been to reduce teenage pregnancy (Harrison
et al. 2001). Under these circumstances one might have expected teenage pregnancy
rates to be dropping and, as we shall see in the next section, they have been dropping.
Nevertheless, rates remain relatively high, and schools, therefore, continue to
accommodate pregnant learners and provide education to young parents.
Demographics
To listen to many teachers talking about teenage sexuality is to feel that it is out of
control and that teenage pregnancy is on the rise. In fact, the opposite is true. The
decline in fertility in South Africa in the last 30 years has been called ‘the quiet
revolution’ (Potts & Marks 2001). Fertility in southern Africa has been declining, and
this trend probably dates back to the 1960s. In the specific case of teenage pregnancy,
data show that there has been a decline, at least since the 1980s. Comparable data
from successive demographic and health surveys have shown that there has been a
downward trend in the age-specific fertility rate for 15- to 19-year-olds. In the period
1987–89 it was estimated at 124 births per 1 000 women, in 1998 it was 81, and the
2003 estimate was 54. In 1998 more than a third (35.1 per cent) of women had been

pregnant by the age of 19. This percentage dropped to 27.3 per cent in 2003 (DoH
1999, 2004, quoted in Jewkes et al. 2009).
Demographic patterns within these trends are revealed by the Statistics South Africa
2001 census, which examines the stages of the life cycle among South Africans.
According to this report, 1.0 per cent of females at the age of 14 had given birth to at
least one child. By 15 the percentage had nearly trebled (2.8 per cent), and increased
to 6.5 per cent at 16; 13.1 per cent at 17; 21.9 per cent at 18; and 30.5 per cent at the
age of 19 (Stats SA 2005a: 78).
Becoming pregnant was much more likely in rural areas (60 per cent more likely),
among women with lower educational attainment (a threefold difference was found
between completion of primary school and matric) and among African and coloured
women (there was a sevenfold difference between African and coloured women
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on the one hand, and white and Indian women on the other) (DoH 1999, 2004,
quoted in Jewkes et al. 2009). The fertility of young African and coloured females is
actually rising, compared to that of the equivalent group of white females. ‘Based on
the 2001 census, Moultrie and Dorrington (2004) estimate that the ratio of “black”
teenage fertility has increased from 4 to 5.5 times [that of] “white” teenagers, and
amongst “coloured” teens from 4 to 4.5 times [that of] “white” teens’ (Swartz &
Bhana 2009: 22, 176). Provincially, teenage pregnancies are highest in the Eastern
Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo (Panday et al. 2009).
For our purposes the important question is how many of these teenagers (who are
pregnant or mothers) are at school? Theoretically, all aged 16 and under should
be at school (when school attendance is compulsory by law), but since there is
encouragement and incentive to complete schooling, we would expect a high
percentage of young females over the age of 18 and even over the age of 20 to be at
school.
Exact figures of young parents are not kept by any provincial department, but some

provinces do keep figures for pregnant learners. In Gauteng the figure jumped from
1 169 in 2005 to 2 336 in 2006.
2
In a national survey of research on teenage pregnancy
(Panday et al. 2009), it has been argued that ‘South Africa’s liberal policy that allows
pregnant girls to remain in school and to return to school post-pregnancy, has
protected teen mothers’ educational attainment and helped delay second birth’. On
the other hand, ‘data from SA shows that dropout often precedes [our emphasis]
pregnancy’ (Panday et al. 2009: 13). It may be a greater challenge to keep children
in school until the age of 16, rather than help those who become pregnant at school
to return.
After giving birth, only about a third of teenage mothers return to school. Panday and
colleagues argue that this ‘may be related to uneven implementation of the school
policy, poor academic performance prior to pregnancy, few child-caring alternatives
in the home, poor support from families, peers and the school environment, and
the social stigma of being a teenage mother. South African data show that the
likelihood of re-entering the education system decreases when childcare support is
not available in the home and for every year that teen mothers remain outside of the
education system’ (Panday et al. 2009: 13).
We have not been able to find any data that indicate either the relative or absolute
numbers of young parents in the schooling system, although from the national
figures quoted above, the numbers are likely to be high. Anecdotally, our sense is
that in some schools the numbers of young parents, particularly young mothers, may
be very high. In a Durban township school, half of the girls in a grade 10 class were
mothers (Masuku 1998). In other schools (generally suburban, middle-class schools)
pregnancy is relatively rare and motherhood more so. We shall return to this issue
in Section B of the book.
There is a disparity between the national decline in teenage motherhood and the
Gauteng figures, which indicate a rise in teenage pregnancies at schools in that
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province. In a provincial summit in Pietermaritzburg in 2006, at which concern was
expressed at an apparent rise in teenage pregnancy in KwaZulu-Natal, the rise in the
rate of teenage pregnancy was explained by Savell (2006) in the sense that policy that
allowed pregnant learners to continue attending school was also held responsible for
the rise in pregnancies, as girls were no longer expelled and did not have to face the
threat of an end to their school days. An opposing view is that most girls leave school
and then get pregnant. Comparatively few get pregnant while at school and then
leave school never to return (Harrison n.d.). For example, 13 per cent of 16-year-old
females are not at school, yet only 5 per cent of this age group report ever having
been pregnant. Harrison (n.d.) further cites a study on Bushbuckridge published
in 2007, which found that the odds of 14- to 19-year-olds being pregnant while at
school was roughly a tenth compared to women of the same age group who had left
school (Harrison n.d.). We cannot make firm statements about whether the number
of pregnant learners and young parents in school is rising, but we can say that the
numbers are substantial, although unevenly distributed. Notably, almost two-thirds
of teenage pregnancies are unplanned and unwanted (RHRU 2003).
When teenagers are sexually active, they are more likely to become pregnant the
older they get. ‘The implication is sexually active young women may initially be
better able to protect themselves from pregnancy, but then experience life changes
that put them at risk’ (IRIN News 2007: 3). High pregnancy rates are also associated
with increased rates of HIV infection. In a Ugandan study, the HIV infection rate
among pregnant girls was nearly twice that of sexually active females of the same age
(Gray et al. 2005). In South Africa HIV rates are often established through research
conducted in antenatal clinics (i.e. with young mothers), although we do not have
comparative figures for HIV rates of pregnant, as opposed to sexually active, young
people. In a national survey (RHRU 2003) the highest rates among 15- to 24-year-
olds were in KwaZulu-Natal (14.1 per cent) and the lowest in Limpopo (4.8 per cent).
Youth living in urban informal areas had the highest HIV prevalence (17.4 per cent),

followed by rural formal areas (13.5 per cent), urban formal areas (9.8 per cent) and
rural informal areas (8.7 per cent).
Although pregnancy undoubtedly increases risk of HIV infection, it also impacts
on schooling. In KwaZulu-Natal, teenage pregnancy has been a frequent cause of
‘interrupted and discontinued education’ (Hunter & May 2002: 3). The full extent in
quantitative terms is hard to determine, but small local studies have reported high
levels of discontinuation. A 1983 study in Durban and surrounding areas found that
over a third (38 per cent) of females in the sample left school because they became
pregnant (Hunter & May 2002).
However, this raises the question of whether, having left school, pregnant girls
drop out or return to school. Put differently, does pregnancy delay the completion
of school or terminate schooling prematurely? The evidence on this is ambiguous.
Elsewhere in Africa, there is evidence that teenage pregnancies terminate schooling.
Bledsoe and Cohen’s study of various countries in Africa (excluding South Africa),
for example, found that the ‘overwhelming majority’ of female learners do not resume
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their studies after giving birth (Bledsoe & Cohen 1993: 162). And, as feminists note,
the failure to return to school has more to do with the circumstances in which these
learners find themselves than with their desire to end their schooling (Manuh 1999).
In South Africa, the evidence suggests delay rather than dropout. Levels of dropout
from school are high, but much of this can be explained by reference to other
factors. For example, in a study of 548 teenagers from working-class communities
on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape, 15.9 per cent had dropped out of school,
but only two reported dropping out because of pregnancy. The main reasons, in
descending order, for dropout were not liking school, poor academic progress and
economic constraints (Flisher & Chalton 1995). However, in a 1991 study of 145
black pregnant learners under the age of 18, it was found that half were unlikely to
return to school after the pregnancy (Cunningham & Boult 1996), partly due to the

lack of willingness of schools to accommodate them and their children. Many young
females in this position, however, want to continue their schooling. For example,
a study in KwaZulu-Natal by Preston-Whyte et al. (1990) suggests that it was, and
probably still is, normal for African teenage girls to leave school to have children and
then to return. Their mothers and grandmothers would look after the child after the
birth, enabling them to return to school. Families are prepared to shoulder the extra
burden of childcare on behalf of teenage mothers because of the value placed on
education and the belief that it improves a woman’s work (and marriage) prospects.
The delay in schooling has a number of educational implications. The likelihood
of pursuing education further is reduced and the performance in school is
jeopardised: ‘An analysis of the 1996 Census shows that in every age group (12 to
15 years, 16 to 25 years, and 26 years and over) women who have given birth are
less likely to be studying than those who have not had children’ (Hunter & May
2002: 23). Furthermore, the likelihood of failing a grade increases with pregnancy.
‘In considering the impact of pregnancy on grade attainment and grade enrolment,
it is evident that 37 percent of girls who dropped behind are currently pregnant or
have been pregnant at some stage’ (Hunter & May 2002: 24). ‘Just under two-thirds
(59 percent) of “ever pregnant” girls have experienced a drop-out episode during
the reference period, and 41 percent repeated at least one grade’ (Hunter & May
2002: 28). Pregnancy does not universally end a girl’s schooling or even necessarily
negatively impact on her grades or delay her progress, but for many it is a major
event that puts a cap on their educational and professional development.
Social context of teenage pregnancy and parenting
Teenage pregnancy is often constructed in policy discourse as ‘a problem’. There are
a number of strands in this construction. One concerns the burden which young
parents may place on state resources, because they need more assistance than older
parents in nuclear or extended family situations. Another is that females who have
children young limit their life prospects (particularly in terms of education and
employment opportunites). Thirdly, there is often concern expressed about teenage
sexuality, which can become a moral panic (Coleman & Denison 1998; Greene &

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