5.2 The effects of teenage pregnancy on educational opportunities for teenage girls.
It was revealed from the study that most of the teenage mothers had dropped out of school. From table 2 (page 7) about 86% of the respondents indicated that they had dropped out of school. School dropout is seen as a cause as well as a consequence of teenage pregnancy. It was clear from the study that some of the respondents dropped out of school due to the pregnancy while others became pregnant because they dropped out of school. These findings are consistent with the theory underpinning this study. Thus most pregnant girls drop out of school to deliver and after delivery feel shy and do not return to school thereby serving as a baseline for other girls with similar problems to imitate. These findings are also consistent with Muganda-Onyando & Omondi’s (2008) assertion that pregnancy acts as a catalyst to school dropout
in poor families. O’Connor (1999) re-echoed tis by stating that academically- oriented females are less likely to give birth while still in high school.
Again, the study revealed that teenage pregnancy reduces the study hours of the respondents. From table 3 (page 8) it was clear that before the pregnancy, the respondents could study averagely for three (3) to four (4) but this reduced to an average of one (1) to two (2) hours. These findings support Mohase’s (2006) findings that issues of pregnancy affect the level of concentration of pregnant women.