The tragedy of dropping out

2008/05/23

SIPHOKAZI, aged 17, is one of thousands of Eastern Cape girls not attending school due to pregnancy. “They want the child support grants, that’s why they have babies,” say some rural teachers. “It’s called the ‘thigh grant’ because the girls spread their thighs for it.”

But Sphokie, as she prefers being called, didn’t get pregnant for money, even though R210 would make a big difference to a household of seven, depending on her grandmother’s pension. In fact, Sphokie hasn’t even applied for the grant yet, although her baby is over four-months old. The trek to town to apply for it would cost too much and take too long.

Anyway, what money the family has is for food, not bureaucracy.

Her grandmother wants her to return to school. But although the school is on the no-fee list because it serves a poor community, there are other prohibitive costs – there is no money for a uniform or transport. Incidentally, child grants are not a common motivation for schoolgirl pregnancy – despite public opinion to the contrary. A Human Sciences Research Council study, found that adolescents across all social sectors get pregnant, even those too well-off to be eligible for the grant. Furthermore, the pregnancy rate among adolescents has apparently declined since the grant was introduced in 1998, and, then only a relatively small proportion of adolescent mothers actually get them. So, most girls are not in motherhood for the money.

But why do schoolgirls like Sphokie get pregnant? Do they not consider their educational future, the financial strain on the family – the risk of HIV?

As Sphokie tells her story, it becomes clear that the most profound human need – that for love and acceptance – led to her falling pregnant. She was traumatised by the painful, and, finally fatal sickness of her mother two years ago. She had also never really known her father, who left for the mines when she was little. She had heard he got sick – something to do with his lungs – but isn’t sure what happened to him. She still feels an aching sense of loss for her parents.

So Sphokie – like any other teenager – longed to be loved and to give love in return. When a good-looking boy gazed at her with desire, she felt her dream of being loved coming true. So she had her baby – a baby whom she adores – for love.

Sphokie never told the school she was leaving, and they never tried to find out where she was. But now there seems to be no way back. Her grandmother, who can’t read and write, feels too shy to talk to the “learned people” at the school.

And while Sphokie believes education is a good thing, she thinks she would probably not have progressed to Grade 12 – let alone passed matric. She wasn’t coping with Grade 10, and would have had to repeat the year anyway.

She adds that she didn’t like school much. She hated the humiliation of being chased away when she couldn’t afford the uniform, and hated being slapped and called udom (stupid) when she didn’t understand her school work. And what of Sphokie’s boyfriend? He failed Grade 11 and is looking for work in Port Elizabeth, she says.

She doesn’t see him now.

Surprisingly, more adolescent boys than girls leave school prematurely in the Eastern Cape, according to a General Household Surveys’ finding. Yet boys don’t get pregnant and very few leave due to family commitments – unlike the many teenage girls who drop out because they must care for other children, parents and siblings. So why do boys leave school early? Poverty is the main factor for both genders. Nearly 43 percent of the boys and 35 percent of girls, who drop out, say it is because they cannot afford the school fees.

That figure, we hope, will drop as the no- fee schooling policy starts to work effectively in the province.

But, almost as worrying as the depth of poverty that thwarts education, is the perceived pointlessness of school amongst boys who drop out. After poverty, the most common reason for leaving school prematurely is that it “is useless or uninteresting”. In fact, this is a far more common reason for dropping out than pregnancy.

That is scary. At least Sphokie, in her way, found some meaning for her existence. But thousands of disaffected young men with no work, money and little hope, offer a bitter vision of the future.