ST ANN, Jamaica — The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) has called on the government to give its full support to the Women’s Centre of Jamaica to help pregnant girls reintegrate into the education system.

JTA President Dr Mark Nicely made it clear that public school’s were not equipped to serve a pregnant student and that the reintegration process should include the continued use of the Women’s Centre of Jamaica.

“No public educational facility in Jamaica has a maternity ward; none has a resident gynaecologist; more than half of our public schools do not have a nurse, none has an ambulance assigned to the school and none has a cadre of midwives attached to the school.  No teachers’ college provides training in treating with pregnant teen.  I call on government to act responsibly by giving the full support to the Women’s Centre to assist the girls to get a second chance and to get support for the baby,” Dr Nicely said.

According to Dr Nicely girls who got pregnant in school deserved a second chance and there should be a process through which this is done.

He said the first step should be for a guidance counselor to report the teen’s pregnancy to the Ministry, which would then send in a social worker; two of whom should be assigned to the regional office of the Ministry of Education.

“The social worker should facilitate the enrolment of the teen into the Women’s Centre and monitor said teen until she delivers the baby, assist said teen with baby sitting arrangement.  Once the teen is stabilised, the social worker must liaise with the Ministry of Education and the school to have the teen reintegrated into the school where the guidance counselor will continue to monitor and counsel the student, who by now would be on a path to academic recovery with an outlook for a successful future” he suggested.

Dr Nicely however added that the JTA would nonetheless continue to advocate for “education first and pregnancy later.”

— Renae Dixon