Student Mothers and the Changing Social Phenomena; Focus on Higher Education in Kenya

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A core responsibility of any educational institution in delivery of quality education entails making education functional and accessible in the face of social dynamics. Changing social phenomena at university enrolment has realised an increasing number of mature-entry student mothers and rising numbers of undergraduate student mothers, a feature that was previously uncommon in higher education. Whereas normal structural changes are often met with regular readjustment and policy change or development in institutions, the student mother phenomenon has been left out despite its obvious implications to equity and accessibility in education. By embracing paradigm shift in sociological research this concept paper, developed at the initial stages of the study adopts qualitative methods and employs participant observer and content analysis to bring into focus student mother experiences and glimpses at existing policies regarding student mothers at university in order to highlight issues of quality, accessibility and inclusiveness in education, in the background of feminist theory and critical theory. The findings reflected challenges of mobility, acceptability, accommodation, delays in completion and alienation of undergraduate student mothers. Though The Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MOEST) gender policy of 2006, revised in 2007 contains the re- entry policy on unconditional readmission of teen mothers into primary and secondary schools, it does not mention the student mothers at university, an assumption that individual universities may probably have internal systems to deal with it. A glimpse at university policies however reveals little or no trace of relevant policies for the undergraduate student mothers albeit tentative accommodation arrangements. This implies that unrevised policies and conservative approaches to student mother issues may result in great challenges of retention, progression, mobility and completion of the more underprivileged undergraduate student mothers. The study therefore suggests the need to carry out thorough studies in the student mother phenomena, to work on impediments that deter education achievement, accessibility and mobility in the face of dynamism in higher education.