Zimbabwe has made the expulsion of schoolgirls who get pregnant illegal, less than one year after a Nigerian state, Ekiti, banned the practice.
This move comes after it was noticed that many Zimbabwean girls were dropping out of school due to pregnancy or marriage reasons.
Development Diaries gathered that some women rights campaigners in Zimbabwe are hopeful this move would help tackle gender inequality in the classroom and stop many girls from dropping out of school.
According to education ministry statistics, in 2018, 12.5 percent of the country’s roughly 57,500 school dropouts stopped attending classes due to pregnancy or marriage reasons – almost all of them girls.
‘I am expecting every parent and guardian and everyone else to understand that every child must be assisted by all of us to go to school’, education minister Cain Mathema told Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Director of Tag a Life Nyaradzo Mashayamombe noted that she feared lockdown measures may have caused a spike in unwanted teen pregnancies.
She called on the government to ensure the new law is enforced stating, ‘we are in a dangerous time where children have been out of school for a long time. Most of them are not even attending radio and television lessons’.
In addition, the Communications Specialist at Plan International Zimbabwe, Sibusisiwe Ndlovu, said, ‘Pregnancy is just one of the reasons that girls in Zimbabwe could fail to return to classes after [Covid-19] restrictions are lifted.
‘Poverty and early marriage will also stop some from resuming their studies… This amendment is crucial in fulfilling the access to education right for all children – especially girls’.
In Nigeria, although the country’s Child Rights Act protects the rights of girls to education during and after pregnancy, many girls, it has been observed, continue to face expulsion.
In late 2019, the government of Ekiti State, southwest Nigeria, laid down the marker in the country by coming up with a policy banning the practice of expelling students who got impregnated while in school.
‘ “Operation Keep Girls In School” policy of the government had ensured that such female students with pregnancies were not denied the opportunities of education” ‘, the wife of the Ekiti State governor, Bisi Fayemi, had said.
‘It is not right for teenagers to engage in sexual relationships. That is why parents must monitor their female children in school.
‘But any schoolgirl that got impregnated, with the new law, will be allowed to continue her study even with the pregnancy and after delivery she will still be allowed to continue schooling. Our girls must go to school’.
Similarly, the government of Sierra Leone was in December 2019 ordered by the ECOWAS court to lift a policy banning pregnant students from attending schools.
It was learnt that the policy, supported by patriarchal beliefs that disapprove of women attending school once pregnant or after they have given birth, was first adopted in 2015.
But in the ruling, the court found the policy to be unlawful and in breach of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights and international law.
However, campaigners in Zimbabwe say girls will still need extra support to continue with their studies even if they keep attending classes while pregnant.
Nevertheless, rights activists and other observers believe that with sustained and effective Keeping Girls in School (KGIS) campaigns, more wins will be recorded.
Sources: Premium Times World Economic Forum
Photo source: Andy Simonds
