KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Constitution and Basic Educational Law in Korea secure every Korean's right to learn and equal opportunity in education, yet pregnant students in actual school systems are situated in blind spots of education. In Korean society, negative stereotypes of teenage single mothers prevail, and schools have enforced those students to drop out their schools on the basis of student regulation that makes it possible for schools to expel those pregnant students. In 2009, as National Human Rights Commission of the Republic of Korea rules it as discriminative, Ministry of Education and provincial and metropolitan/municipal offices of education takes a measures of securing the student single mothers' right to learn by revising school regulations; for instance, they include current operation of eighteen contract alternative educational institutes for single mothers. But since the government has not checked feasibility of the measure of securing the student single mothers' right to learn, overall research to seek synthetic diagnosis of this measure and search for alternatives is necessary. As a methodology, this research conducts in-depth interviews with thirty teenage single mothers who have experienced pregnancy and childbirth during their secondary school-age years in order to understand their experiences of staying in schools or dropping out of schools in case they are already dropouts. Also, this research conducts an investigation of the operation condition of eighteen contract alternative schools for single mothers nationwide; it also inspects seventeen provincial and metropolitan/municipal offices of education regarding their taking the measure of securing the student single mothers' right to learn. Moreover, accompanying interviews with expert groups carried out, this study also endeavors to develop ways to secure teenage single mothers' right to learn by exploring policy cases for supporting teenage single mothers in the U.S. the UK, and Taiwan where the pregnancy rate of teens is high.

The result of in-depth interviews shows that most participants tend to have experienced family disorganization and have such problems as runaways and school maladjustment, low academic achievement, etc. due to dysfunctional family culture and economic poverty. Though there are many cases of students' getting pregnant during schooling, there is also significant number of cases of getting pregnant when they are already dropouts. Most student single mothers are forced into a situation in which they cannot find any other measures than giving birth because they often find out their pregnancy after the middle phase of pregnancy. Currently, the only way for the pregnant students to continue her schooling without dropping out of school is to transfer to contract alternative educational institutes. But the process of transference to the alternative schools cannot help publicizing students' pregnancy, and schools are not very pleased with the fact that their students are pregnant so that they tend to be reluctant to cooperate in this process. Moreover, school sometimes insidiously urges the pregnant students to transfer secretly and not to disclose their pregnancy to other friends or acquaintances. Schools' such negative attitudes forces students, who are afraid of expulsion from schools due to pregnancy and deprived of will to consult with teachers, to quit school.

Those students who have experienced contract alternative educational institutes are satisfied with the institutes because of the fact that the students can continue to learn, they have grown interest in learning due to the tailored teaching for small groups, and the institutes have much freer atmosphere than regular schools. To them, an alternative educational institute signifies “hope and possibility” and “space of self-reflection and epiphany” However, these students point out such drawbacks as the lower level of classes than those of their previous (regular) schools and relatively poor educational environment where the situations of pregnant women and child-rearing single mothers are not considered, etc.; they also experience much difficulties in returning to the schools they were originally enrolled in after getting contract education or in entering advanced schools. Notably, there are cases where school, recognizing the student's pregnancy and childbirth, denies her returning to the original school or entering advanced school; what's more, those who have returned to the schools they were originally enrolled in express difficulties in catching up with the academic schedule, rearing their child and studying at the same time, etc.

The result of investigation of the provincial and metropolitan/municipal offices of education shows that schools do not modify their regulations yet even though fifteen, out of seventeen, offices of education have recommended schools to do so. The result of the total inspection reveals that more than a half of 786 high schools in five areas—Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, Keyongbuk, and Jeonbuk—have regulation of dating and 48.1% of these schools, almost a half of the total, have a regulation of expulsion of pregnant students. Research on contract alternative schools proves that the alternative educational institutes cannot provide classes based on each student's grade or school level because most of these institutes cannot supply enough instructors due to the lack of financial support. Though classes of regular subjects including Korean, English, Math, etc. and classes based on alternative subjects such as parent education are offered, deviation among these institutions is too wide. In terms of administration, some offices of education do not have academic guidelines and they also suffer from such difficulties as lack of advertisement of contract education as well as lack of administrative support from the schools the student single mothers were originally enrolled in.

The result of interviews with field experts and investigation of foreign cases reveal that active and diverse support from regional communities and other schools, improvement of social awareness, comprehensive support system, securing budget, maternity leave policy, etc. are necessary in addition to contract alternative educational institutes. Based on these results from the research, this paper suggests such policy measures as the following in order to secure the student single mothers' right to learn.

○ To establish legislation for securing the student single mothers' right to learn

- To establish a new clause to Primary and Secondary Education Law in relation to securing the student single mothers' right to learn

- To establish a new clause regarding the absence or leave in relation to pregnancy and childbirth to guidelines for writing students' school record and for management of it regarding

- To create a manual of securing the pregnant students' right to learn and distribute it

○ To mount a publicity campaign to inform the policy on the student single mothers' right to learn

○ To establish comprehensive support system for improving the effectiveness of contract alternative educational institutes

- To appoint, integrate, and operate these institutes as a national policy undertaking

- To secure facilities for maternal and child welfare specialized in adolescents single mothers

- To create an educational environment for student single mothers to do both studying and child-rearing

○ To enforce systemic educational support of contract alternative educational institutes

- To create guidelines of alternative educational programs

- To enforce budget support for enrichment of teaching and learning - To provide opportunities for the students to get career education and vocational training - To operate responsively to student mothers’ situations

- To expand targets of contract education

○ To increase teachers' and school community's awareness of the teenage single mothers' right to learn

○ To establish the foundation of local communities for single mothers

○ To improve the effectiveness of sex education in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy