In the last four years, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has reintegrated more than 800 teenaged mothers into the local school system.
Minister Nicolette Henry told reporters at a People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) press conference at Congress Place on Friday that 500 of these mothers were enrolled in technical and vocational schools, and the Carnegie School of Home Economics in particular. The others have returned to the traditional secondary schools.
The reintegration initiative is part of the “We Care” programme which is implemented by the MoE in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health.
The programme aims to “reduce the vulnerability of young women to poverty and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), while providing them with the opportunity to complete their Secondary education.”
Initially, teen mothers were linked with members of their communities to provide them with support in raising their child. This later evolved to include the MoE, which began providing support in the form of hampers.
The Coordinator of the Mental Health Unit, Travis Freeman, had noted that the ministry was also responsible for opening an antenatal clinic as well as a health and wellness clinic for adolescent mothers, while Chief Education Officer (CEO) Marcel Huston had explained that approximately 332 mothers received hampers due to the collaborative efforts of the ministries in 2017, while 800 benefitted in 2018.
The ministries have worked jointly over the past five years to provide the care hampers at health centres countrywide and to educate teen mothers in order to prevent the occurrence of second pregnancies.
