Educational Issues of Pregnant Students - Teachers’ Perceptions of School Students’ Pregnancy in the Case of Madiben City School

Abstract

The South African government has made pregnancy prevention measures readily available and free throughout the country, but the measures have proven to be futile in eradicating learner pregnancy. While learner pregnancy increases in schools, it inevitably has a significant impact on the educational outcome of affected learners, due to disruption of learning. The study findings suggest that the Departments of Health and Education need to collaborate in order to initiate a partnership between teachers, school health nurses and midwives regarding learner pregnancy in schools. In this manner, complications related to learner pregnancy will be avoided in schools, learners will have a better experience during pregnancy and teachers will be comfortable in their working environment. Lastly, teachers in this study revealed that learner pregnancy has been a problem postdemocracy, but Panday et al. (2009:9) argue that “while current political and media depictions imply that South Africa is confronted with an escalating epidemic of learner pregnancies, available data suggest that it is an area in which substantial progress has been made since democracy.”