Effectiveness Of The Re-Entry Policy Implementation In Secondary Schools

In contrast to the policy of exclusion,which used to expel teenage girls who got early pregnancy while in school.The re-entry policy,advocates for adolescent girls who get early pregnancy while in school to be readmitted back to school after giving birth.This policy is part of the government of the Republic of Zambia's immediate effort to tackle the gender disparity in the provision of education through the Ministry of General Education.Hence,the purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of the re-entry policy implementation in secondary schools from an educational management perspective to understand the missing links between the stipulated re-entry policy and the actual practice on the ground in terms of its practical implementation in secondary schools,Lusaka District,Zambia.Further,in this study,a qualitative method using a case study approach was chosen,and standard open-ended interviews were used to obtain in-depth information from the district education officers,head teachers,teachers,and parents to teen mothers.In the same vein,the researcher in this study used focus group discussions to collect data from teen mothers and current pupils.Additionally,document analysis also were used in this study,to gather information concerning the re-entry policy implementation processes such as circulars,reports on re-admission used by the selected secondary schools in Lusaka District,Zambia.Similarly,in this study,a modified conceptual framework based on Sadler's(1996)“effectiveness triangle”,and Baker and McLelland's(2003)“effectiveness cycle” was used and contextualized in identifying,analysis and understanding the effectiveness of the re-entry policy implementation in secondary schools from an educational management perspective using the 6W's of management.Also,this study is significant as it develops recommendations that may be useful in the context of improving the effectiveness of the re-entry policy implementation in secondary schools.The theoretical themes emerged in this study,showed that the re-entry policy formulation in Zambia is as a result of the globalization of educational policies,which has made educational policies become a copy and paste,one size fits all,neglecting the views and concerns of key stakeholders responsible for policy implementation.In the same vein,the findings showed that,for policy implementation effectiveness to be considered,the implementation process should bring out or meet the policy goals and objectives set.This means that in practice the re-entry policy implementation is not effective to a higher degree.Based on the fact that,in this study,the findings showed that,the re-entry policy is silent,key stakeholders responsible for implementing the policy are not complying with the policy guidelines,lack of policy ownership by stakeholders responsible for implementing the policy,no awareness of the policy in secondary schools,and unclear policy goals and objectives set.The researcher of present study arrived at this conclusion by arguing that,there is a narrative proof in this study to the hypothetical assumption 1,that the re-entry policy is good and can lead to an increase in the enrollment of adolescent mothers back to secondary schools though it lacks effective implementation.Also,the researcher concludes that,in this study,there is a narrative proof to hypothetical assumption 2,that the re-entry policy guidelines,goals,and objectives if well outlined and explained to key stakeholders responsible for implementing the policy in secondary schools could lead to closing the gap between the stipulated policy and the practice on the ground concerning effective implementation.Further,the study recommends that the Ministry of General Education must redesign the policy and include all key stakeholders in the formulation process and clearly state the goals and objectives of the policy.Introduce mass policy awareness campaigns to the target groups by partnering with NGOs and DEBS to ensure future successful implementation.