Media campaign for re-integrating teenaged mothers in school

Chief Schools Welfare Officer (CSWO) Ms Bhanmattie Ram yesterday said that the money for phase two of a programme to re-integrate teenaged mothers in school has been approved and details of the undertaking are being finalised.

She explained that the second phase of the initiative has a two month duration and entails a mass media campaign to sensitise the public to the issue.

The drive, the CSWO disclosed, also involves counselling sessions including a few with their peers.

Ram told the Guyana Chronicle that the Ministry of Education has decided to pilot the programme in the Georgetown Education District and pointed out that teaching might be done after 15 hrs.

The Ministry of Education, United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) funded programme was expected to commence in January this year but was held up because of insufficient .

The initiative launched in April 2007 by then Chief Welfare Officer Mrs. Yvonne Arthur was the subject of debate at a regional education officers workshop at the Regency Suite Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown.

Assistant Chief Education Officer Primary, Mr. Nashrulla Khan, had pointed out that the idea was vehemently opposed by a number of headteachers who are of the view that bringing back teenage mothers into the school will mar the image of the institutions they attend.

But Assistant Chief Education Officer Secondary, Ms Melcita Bovell, contended that while society holds a negative view on such re-integration, students must not be deprived of their constitutional right to a secondary education.

She argued that an educated mother will be better able to have a respectable job, provide for her child and lead a life of recovery.

Bovell said, appallingly, some students are made pregnant by their providers and suggested that welfare officers form a national contactable confidante group to address such plights.

Mrs. Arthur envisioned the programme would reduce poverty and the chances of teenage mothers turning to prostitution to upkeep themselves and their children.

The programme was conceptualized in 2002 by then Minister of Education Dr. Henry Jeffrey, and a policy document was subsequently drafted.

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