“They say that I have lost my integrity by breaking my virginity”: experiences of teen school going mothers in two schools in Lusaka Zambia

Globally, 101 million girls drop out of school annually because they get pregnant and 88% of these live in Africa and Asia [1], with only an estimated 34% returning to school after giving birth [2]. Adolescent motherhood is especially disruptive to the educational process of the girls with many teenage mothers leaving school, never to return. Those that return experience a disruption in the learning process both psychosocially and through lack of support from their social environment [3, 4]. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest numbers of teenage mothers dropping out of school [5]. For instance, out of 13,634 million school girls who got pregnant in 2009, only 5517 million returned to school [6]. Girls dropping out of school threaten the national economics and labour market as well as the social and political development [7] of a country. Much research shows that the single predictor of family health is the completion of primary (elementary) school by girls normally from the ages of seven to 12 years.

The Forum for African Women Educationalist through their respective ministries of education have strategically lobbed to improve the education of the girls by allowing them to return to school after giving birth. However, implementation has not been straightforward because of the moral stigma associated with teenage motherhood [8]. Studies have shown that teen mothers experience unbearable pressure at school [9–11] such as shaming, self-stigma and being labelled as deviant [12]. Some teachers and administrators ignore the provision of equal opportunities for adolescent mothers by stigmatizing the girls in front of other learners [13] and did not give the girls the same chance to learn as they gave other learners. Instead, teachers utter hurtful words to discourage them from attending classes for fear that allowing teen mothers in school would appear to encourage immorality in school and wanted to protect the reputation of the school [14].

Adolescent mothers suffer from serious emotional disturbances with unfortunate social and health consequences. Teen mothers are prone to dropping out of school because their emotional feelings remain unattended to [15]. They are in danger of mood disorder which can lead to depression [16], or substance use and possibly sex work to support the habit. Consequently, they become more exposed to illicit behaviors. Experiences that adolescent school going mother face when they go back to school after giving birth in Zambia remains under-studied. Thus, the researcher sought to explore the experiences adolescent girls face when they go back to school after giving birth.

Ethical clearance (reference number 2015-June-026) was granted by Excellence in Research Ethics and Science (IRB No. 00005948), located along Addis Ababa road in Roads Park Lusaka-Zambia. Written permission was sought from District Education Board Secretary Offices (DEBS) to carry out the study in the mentioned schools. Written and verbal permission was obtained from the head-teachers of the two schools.

The primary source of information in this study were adolescent school going mothers aged 16 to 19. The girls were from grade eight to twelve and most of the girls were single except for two who were married. Main findings show that most of the girls experienced humiliation at school by teachers, classmates and peers. Some people in the community had a negative perception of these girls and were perceived as bad influences and others did not receive family support to cope with motherhood and public humiliation. For these reasons, some young mothers became resilient by embracing the ‘label’ of immoral (drinking) and taking intermittent breaks from school.

In this study, we aimed at exploring the experiences of adolescent school going mothers when they return to school. We have found that adolescent school going mothers have challenges. Teachers demanded that adolescent school going mothers pay the teacher if they were to be helped with the missed lessons. The poor learning environment was found to be one of the challenges adolescent school going mothers faced. This was because adolescent school going mothers were misunderstood by non-parenting girls. Adolescent school going mother were also forced into early marriages by their parents/guardians. The community further perceived schools to have lost values for allowing adolescent mothers back into school. This was seen as encouraging immorality in schools. Non-parenting girls in school did not want to associate with adolescent school going mothers as they were considered to be naughty. We also found that adolescent school going mothers involved themselves in elicit behavior such as beer drinking.

This data were collected from adolescent school going mothers only. Therefore, the results could have been biased because of some strengths and limitations. To begin with, data were collected from two schools in an urban area [Lusaka province only] as the study setting and limited to an urban environment. The study population was a limitation as data were collected from adolescent school going mothers only, leaving out teachers, non-parenting pupils and the community. Generalizability of the findings of the study is a limitation in most studies which is an exception to this study. However, in-depth interview as a qualitative method of gathering information was ideal as respondents were able to express themselves and probing questions were asked after respondents gave their initial response. Furthermore, a phenomenological study was used as it would be better if a mixed method was conducted in this study.

We found that the teachers’ negative attitude made it difficult for adolescent school going mothers to catch up on lessons missed the times they would be absent from school to attend to the baby as teachers demanded that they teach the mothers at a fee. According to Chigona and Chetty [9] teachers were not willing to go through the lesson when a learner has missed due to infant related problem. This has been outlined in other studies conducted in the same region that had the same study population in their studies [10, 17, 18]. Olivier [19] further disputed that some teachers considered adolescent mothers’ issue as private that does not concern them. We further observed that adolescent school going mothers are absent from school at least every month as also observed elsewhere [9] albeit teachers having no flexible timetable for them. Our study suggests the need for the policymaker to introduce workshops for teachers on how best to assist adolescent school going mothers and involve other organizations like health sectors and social welfare to obtain help.

Even if adolescent school going mothers continued with their education, our finding reported that the learning environment for adolescent school going mothers was not good. This is because schools have no committees which are responsible to protect adolescent school going mothers’ welfare especially in cases where they experience any form of humiliation within the school premises. This coincides with earlier reports by Ministry of Education in South Africa [20] that reported that adolescent mothers complained that their schools had not allowed them to attend classes because they were mothers. This is because schools feared that allowing adolescent mothers in school would seem like encouraging immorality in school which is like degrading the education system. This confirms with Chigona and Chetty [9] who revealed that teenage mothers contaminate other non-parenting learners leading to the rejection of those teenage mothers who exercise their education rights by returning to school. Chauke [21] advocated that adolescent school going mothers suffered from anxiety and isolation, as girls in classes did not want to share a seat with adolescent mothers for fear of adulteration [22]. The study suggests practical intervention to build communication between adolescent school going mothers and the school authorities through the formation of committees to be responsible for adolescent school going mothers’ challenges. The poor learning environment for adolescent school going mothers may discourage the young mothers from attending lessons regularly.

Consequently, our study adds to this literature by showing that adolescent school going mothers were forced into early marriages by their parents who withdrew from paying school fees for adolescent school going mothers. The reasons for this could be that parents would not want to continue supporting young mothers with school as having a baby while at school is a sign of not wanting school. This confirms with earlier reports by Jewkes et al. [23] who reported that if society perceives adolescent mothers as women, it is a challenge for them to go back to school. Grant et al. [3] advocated that the birth of the baby marks the end of schooling for adolescent mothers [3] who are often married and their birth may be welcomed by family and society, and therefore, does not involve a social stigma [24]. Explanations for exclusionary practices of young mothers responded to these in strategic ways, where the girls would look for small rented houses and resort to street vending to provide for their baby as well as school. In this regard, Makibi et al. [25] further reported that some families distanced themselves from teen mother because they felt ashamed that the community would look down upon the family for the action of their daughter. The reasons for this was outside the scope of this study because parents were not part of the study sample and the study relied on adolescent mothers for all the information. This study advocates a need to train parents to understand the progressing cognitive capacity of adolescent mothers and help young mothers to advise them of the hardship of being in marriage while at school. We also know that the community is not comfortable to allow adolescent school going mothers in school.

Despite parents of adolescent mothers forcing them into marriage, we have further found that the community members regarded the education system to have lost value because of allowing adolescent mothers in school together with non-parenting girls which is perceived as encouraging immorality in schools. The community would indirectly tease young mothers by calling them with all sort of bad names to discourage them from attending school. Although issues concerning community members forcing the school authorities not to allow adolescent mothers in school were not mentioned in this study, we still argue that this is possible because it has been reported somewhere else in the region. Chigona and Chetty [9] reported that committees in the community were up in arms with the school authority demanding the expulsion of young mothers, where the girls were regarded as ‘othered’ [17, 21, 26]. This is confirmed by Chapati, Yahoo Contributor Network [27] when he explained that teenage mothers are tagged as bad news in Nigeria as it is the case in South Africa, and they are socially ostracized. It was also revealed by Chauke [21] that parents warn their daughters to stay away from the mothers as they feared that their kids will be corrupted by the immoral ways of a teenage mother. The study demonstrates that issues concerning adolescent mothers could incorporate community-based interventions that transmute social–ethnic values associated with how society perceives adolescent school going mother and sexuality. This is observed in an approach that considers the wider social environment of adolescents and acknowledges that the experience of adolescents is influenced by factors located at the individual, family, peer, community and structural levels in determining relevant intervention [28].

While it is possible that adolescent school going mothers may endure with their situation by seeking God’s intervention as found in our study, we also observed that the negative psychological outcomes of being a young mother caused the girls to handle their situation differently where young mothers engaged themselves in illicit behaviors such as beer drinking. This coincides with Huang et al. [29], who reported that most of the teen mothers resort to beer drinking, drug abuse as well as prostitution. The reasons for this are unclear and were beyond the scope of this study but need further exploration particularly given that adolescent mothers resorted to seeking God’s intervention as they struggled with their new role and school [23]. This is confirmed by Zondo [30] who reported that teenage mothers experienced difficulties in balancing their educational responsibilities and taking care of their babies. Smith battle [31] also advocated that substance use was high among the girls. Policy makers in Zambia have not integrated new programs to guide the schools about the well-being of the young mothers. Our study suggests the need for developing strategies to counsel young mothers and parents so that they better understand the developing cognitive capacity of adolescent mothers to understand the meaning of being a mother and to better know when adolescents are in a state of denial so that they don’t involve themselves in illicit behavior.

Since the study was conducted in an urban area in one district, a similar study should be conducted in a rural area where teachers, parents and the community could be part of the study population. A study should use a mixed method.

The research was conducted to provide information on experiences of adolescent school going mothers. Our findings show that inadequate support from the teachers, community and fellow pupils disempower adolescent mothers. Adolescent school going mothers are forced into early marriages and therefore involved themselves in street vending while others worked as maids. The community looked down on adolescent mothers calling them all sorts of bad names. It also led young school going mothers to develop certain behaviors such as beer drinking, skipping school days in order to withstand the situation and continue with their education. There is need to strengthen the education system by supporting adolescent mothers through providing flexible time tables where extra lessons could be conducted for free. There is also need to educate the teachers, non-parenting girls and the community on how best to handle adolescent school going mothers and support them through counselling. There is need for policy makers to introduce separate classes and committees to deal with adolescent school going mothers’ problems in order to create a friendly learning environment for adolescent mothers.