RUAHA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

Tanzania is confronted with an increasing number of school dropouts among secondary school girls; despite various government efforts to curb the problem, there is a steady increase in the phenomena in Tabora municipal. The study aims to examine the challenges which have stubbornly continued to prevent social workers from effectively preventing teenage pregnancies. The study had ten participants (five social workers and five education officers employed at Tabora municipal) were selected to participate and inform the study. The two focus group discussions of five members each and five key informants' interviews were used to generate information while observing the principle of saturation. This study was guided by system theory, as it considers the interdependence and interrelatedness among the sub-systems in the efforts to prevent teenage pregnancies among secondary school girls. The findings revealed that social workers are challenged with poor working environments, little recognition of their competencies, a lack of awareness of their roles and a limited budget set for their various activities. The study recommends an intensive campaign to create awareness of the role and competencies of social workers to prevent teenage pregnancies in secondary schools in Tanzania.

Child Protection, Teenage pregnancies, School dropout, Social Workers, Secondary School girls