Sent Home for Pregnancy, Still Dreaming of School: The Story of a Kaduna Teen Mother

By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna 

FEATURE ARTICLE

Every morning in Bayan Dutse community, Narayi Ward of Chikun Local Government Area, 17-year-old Rhoda Yakubu (not her real name) watches schoolchildren walk past her home in uniforms that once defined her own daily life.

Not long ago, she was one of them.

She attended classes, revised assignments with friends, worried about examinations, and imagined a future shaped by education. Today, her routine revolves around caring for her seven-month-old baby.

Her education was interrupted after she became pregnant at 16 while in SS2.

“When they noticed my condition, they informed my dad and called him to the school,” Rhoda recalled. “After that, they stopped me from coming to school because I was pregnant.”

The decision abruptly removed her from the classroom and from the future she had imagined for herself.

Rhoda said her pregnancy followed a relationship with a young man she met through friends. According to her, the relationship later became difficult after she informed him she was pregnant.

“At first, he said I should remove it,” she said. “Later, he told me to keep the baby.”

But as the pregnancy progressed, she said he began denying responsibility and stopped answering her calls.

The situation triggered tension between both families and emotional strain at home. Though her father was initially angry, Rhoda said he later promised she would continue her education after childbirth and breastfeeding.

“I still want to continue my education,” she said quietly. “Education is important for my future and for my child’s future too.”

Though authorities of the mission school she attended could not be reached at the time of filing this report, a school guideline sighted by this reporter outlined how the mission school approach cases involving pregnant students.

According to the guideline, the school uphold moral discipline and teach that sexual activity belongs within marriage. However, the document also stresses compassion, counseling, and protection of students’ dignity.

“A student who becomes pregnant should not be humiliated or abandoned,” the guideline stated.

It added that although disciplinary measures may apply according to school rules, efforts should still be made to support the student’s emotional wellbeing, education, and possible reintegration after childbirth.

“The goal is to balance discipline with mercy, guidance, and care,” the document stated.

But beyond Rhoda’s personal experience lies a broader debate about how Kaduna State should respond to pregnant and nursing learners.

According to Rahila Ishaku Baita, Co-Chair of the Kaduna Education Accountability Mechanism (KADBEAM), adolescent pregnancy should not be treated only as a disciplinary issue.

She noted that while schools have responsibilities to maintain discipline and moral standards, vulnerable girls should not be permanently excluded from education because of pregnancy.

Baita said Kaduna State needs a clearer and more structured re-entry framework that allows adolescent mothers to continue or resume their education without stigma or discrimination.

According to her, schools currently respond differently to cases involving pregnant students because there is no fully standardized operational framework guiding reintegration across the state.

She also recommended stronger counselling and psychosocial support systems for affected learners, noting that many schools lack trained counsellors equipped to handle trauma, stigma, peer pressure, reproductive health concerns, and learner reintegration.

Baita further called for expansion of flexible learning opportunities through initiatives such as the Second Chance Education Initiative and the Reaching Out-of-School Children (ROOSC) Project to support adolescent mothers, married girls, and other vulnerable learners excluded from conventional schooling.

According to her, such centres can provide flexible schedules, accelerated learning pathways, vocational training, counselling services, and community-based learning options.

She also emphasized the need for government and civil society organizations to work more closely with parents, faith leaders, traditional institutions, women groups, and School-Based Management Committees to promote child protection, parental responsibility, and continued education for vulnerable girls.

“This conversation should never become a choice between morality and education,” Baita said. “Society can uphold moral values while still protecting the educational future of vulnerable children.”

Meanwhile, Kaduna State education authorities insist pregnant learners should not be excluded from school at all.

According to Jamil Haruna, Permanent Member of the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (KADSUBEB), the government’s responsibility is to return out-of-school children to classrooms, not increase their numbers.

“So there is no reason why a lady, if pregnant in school, should be sent out while we are trying to bring children back to school,” Haruna said.

He explained that Kaduna State already operates “Second Chance” schools for girls whose education was interrupted by pregnancy or marriage.

According to him, the programme combines formal education with vocational training and also includes nursery and primary arrangements for children of young mothers.

“In that second chance programme, we have skill acquisition centres in the same school. We also have nursery and primary schools for their children,” he said. 

Haruna also acknowledged concerns raised about the absence of facilities for nursing mothers in some schools but maintained that such situations should be addressed through administrative support rather than exclusion.

“Whatever the problem is, the head teacher of that school should write to the ministry. We are going to have our ways to assist such individual,” he added.

For Rhoda, however, those policies and debates still feel distant from her everyday reality.

Her days are now consumed by childcare responsibilities, uncertainty, and dependence on family support. Sometimes, she says, she watches students heading to school and imagines herself among them again.

She misses reading with classmates, classroom conversations, and the ordinary distractions of school life.

Still, despite the interruption and stigma, she remains determined to continue her education someday.

For now, she waits, holding on to the hope that motherhood will not permanently close the classroom door she was forced to leave behind.