Assessing the Impact of Re-Entry Policy in the Zambian Education System: A Case of Chongwe District

Abstract

The quest for equal and fair education to all genders in Zambia, and the world at large, has raised more concerns about bringing pregnant students back to school. Slogans such as “girl child education” stand as hallmarks for education systems. Zambia as a country has also embraced this “right” through the enactment of “The Re-entry Policy”. However, the success and fruition of this policy leave much to be desired. It is for this reason that this study embarks on investigating the impact of re-entry policy on education in Zambia. The study took a case of Chongwe primary school, Matipula primary school, Mukamambo secondary school, Chongwe secondary school, and Kasisi Girls secondary school of Chongwe District in Lusaka Province. Notably, Chongwe is among the eight districts with a population of approximately 37000 people. The study had five objectives that were: to establish the impact of re-entry policy on education in Chongwe district, to analyze the motivation for re-entry policy by the Government, to highlight the negative effects of the re-entry policy on education in Chongwe district, to prescribe the steps that should be taken to reduce the re-entry policy cases in schools in Chongwe district and to establish and document the benefits of reducing re-entry policy cases in Chongwe district. Data were collected from a purposive sample of the five (5) schools within Chongwe district was carefully done. Thus, Chongwe and Matipula primary school, Chongwe Secondary, Mukamambo Girls secondary Kasisi Girls secondary schools will stand as the population sample of Chongwe district. The researcher believes that the selected sites have a higher chance of representing Chongwe district and Zambia at large.