NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 22 – A Bill seeking to support teenage mothers and child parents to continue their education while caring for their children was introduced in the National Assembly.
The Care and Protection of Child Parents Bill, 2023, seeks to provide a framework for the care and protection of child parents and to provide a framework through which an expectant girl child or a child parent may actualise their right to basic education while ensuring the care of their children.
The Bill which is co-sponsored by Nominated Senator Miraj Abdulrahman and Kericho County Woman Representative Beatrice Kemei mandates the National and the 47 County governments to develop programs that identify and re-enroll students who have dropped out due to pregnancy and being a child caregiver.
If the Bill is approved, counties will be expected to establish childcare centers for children under three years near schools to support student mothers and caregivers.
“Part 4 of the Bill creates a framework for the establishment of care centres which would provide facilities for the care of children born to child parents and who would wish to resume with their studies but have no person to take care of their child,” reads the Bill’s Statement of the Objects and Reasons for the Bill
In championing for the Bill’s passage both Abdulrahman and Kemei explain that in Kenya, a sizable number of girls drop out from school and are unable to complete education when they become expectant while undertaking their basic education.
“In some instances, the school where the child was attending refuses to readmit the child thus denying them the opportunity to complete their basic education, stigma from the society and other learners while in other instances, the expectant children come from needy families and have to drop out of school so as to take care of their children once they give birth,” they said in a statement.
The lawmakers added that Although the Ministry of Education formulated the National Guidelines for School Re-Entry in Early Learning and Basic Education in 2020, the problem still persists, hence the need to ensure collaboration of the National Government and county governments in protecting such children and ensuring that there are structures supporting them to continue with their education.
A 2023 report conducted by the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (FLANA), shows that the percentage of school-aged children aged six to 15 years who are out of school increased from 7.5 per cent in 2021 to 8.5 per cent in 2023.
The report which was released on March 5, revealed that 0.5 per cent of children in rural areas get married early.
The percentage shot up to 2.4 in urban areas while overall, 1.2 per cent of children dropped out of school due to early marriages.
A total of 2.1 per cent nationally dropped out due to pregnancy.
It said the prevalence rate stood at 1.2 per cent in rural areas and 1.5 per cent in urban areas.
