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Teenage Pregnancy

Similarly, teenage girls who become pregnant are likely to be expelled from school, thus ending their education at an early age, even before they have had the opportunity to develop meaningful life skills. Expelling these young women from school due to pregnancy reinforces a cycle of dependency and poverty for women. Such practices keep women out of the decision-making process; keep them economically dependent on men, and contribute to an over-burdened public welfare system.

School Policy Expelling Young Girls
Ten years ago, it was almost certain that a young girl would be expelled from school due to pregnancy, thus putting an end to her formal education. Over the past years a number of high schools have changed their policies in order to accommodate the young mother to complete her education. This new policy (which varies by high schools) has led to a number of young mothers completing high school.
However, in the districts, there are some high schools that have taken a different approach to educating young mothers. They have meaningful policies in place to allow for the continuing education of young mothers who have the desire to complete their high school education. For instance, a few have changed their policy allowing not only single mothers to attend but married young women who have the desire to complete their education.
High schools that are currently expelling young mothers due to pregnancy or those with policies that expel teen mothers from first and second forms argue that these young mothers-to-be often drop out of school before reporting the pregnancy to school authorities. For some, they are not aware of the school policy. If it is close to the end of the semester or graduation, some girls try to conceal the pregnancy to the end of the semester hoping that the pregnancy will not be obvious to their peers, teachers or school administrators.
Most of the cases of teenage pregnancy occur within the high school system. Primary school...