Exclusion from school: teenage pregnancy and the denial of education

Abstract

There is an unrecognised crisis in the education of pregnant schoolgirls and schoolgirl mothers. Girls leaving school due to pregnancy are not reported in official statistics. This has serious consequences in terms of resource allocation and planning of service provision. This article examines how girls are forced out of the mainstream education system because they are pregnant or have given birth. The consequences for the young mothers and their children are dramatic—as a result of their missing out on the crucial experience of education they may be left disaffected from society with poor future employment and life prospects. This is particularly important as teenage pregnancy disproportionately affects working‐class girls. The crisis is exacerbated by the fact that research on the problem is dominated by health concerns, and that very little education data are collected. The article concludes that despite new government schemes trying to address some of the issues of teenage pregnancy, there is a lost generation of teenage girls who have become pregnant and given birth in the last two to three years and who have effectively ‘fallen through the net’.

Notes

1. Research was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on gender and exclusion, resulting in the report (Osler et al., 2001) Not a Problem? Girls and School Exclusion for the National Children's Bureau. Data collected for the aforementioned research that were not utilised in the final report have been used for this article.

2. Girls from all social groups become pregnant. In a general way it can be said that the middle‐class girl is more likely to ‘opt’ for a termination and those who ‘opt’ for motherhood are more likely to be working class. Explanations for this disparity of choice is mainly based on reported differences in future aspirations and the nature of the contact with the medical profession. See Dawson (1995, pp. 26–28).

3. For a summary see Meet the Challenge (Education Action Zones, 1999).

4. PRUs are special units usually used to educate pupils who have been permanently expelled from school, usually due to violent behaviour or excessive truanting. Some units take pregnant schoolgirls as well, but few are equipped with a crèche to keep them on after giving birth.

5. Pregnant at School (Joint Working Party on Pregnant Schoolgirls and Schoolgirl Mothers, September 1979, p. 23).

6. Working Together, Connexions and Teenage Pregnancy.

7. The Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy Annual Report (2002/03).

8. This is interesting as the guidance from the DfES states that a schoolgirl mother is only eligible for financial help with childcare where family members are unable to help—families where both grandparents are working may be eligible for Working Families Tax Credit for the Childcare of their Grandchild (11.1).

9. ‘Government childcare “not sufficient”’ (BBC News, 30 June 2003).