Pregnancy-related school dropouts in Botswana

In many Sub-Saharan African countries there are concerns about high rates o f pregnancy-related school dropouts. Schoolgirls who become pregnant have f ewer opportunities to complete their education after the birth of their fir st child and have fewer opportunities for socioeconomic advancement. This p aper uses data from a nationally representative sample of Batswana women in conjunction with focus group interviews to describe the impact of schoolgi rl pregnancy, and to identify the factors that facilitate the return to sch ool of girls who did drop out because of pregnancy. The results indicate th at the problem of schoolgirl pregnancy may be much more severe than is comm only assumed. Although the situation is improving, there is a need to conti nue to improve programmes to reduce adolescent pregnancy, and a need to try and increase the number of young mothers who return to school to complete their education.