No more expelling pregnant girls from school, Zimbabwe.
In the recent years, most girls have dropped out of school due to different issues but the major one being of unwanted pregnancies and now it is illegal for schools to expel pupils who get pregnant.
By Pamela T. Munyoro
Legal amendment comes as school closures due to COVID-19 raise fears of a rise in sexual abuse and unwanted pregnancies.
Women’s rights campaigners said that, it would help to tackle gender inequality in the classroom and stop many girls from dropping out of school.
Back in 2018, 12.5% of 57,500 school dropouts were due to pregnancy or marriage reasons.
This amendment of criminalizing the expulsion of pregnant girls, will be of great advantage to most girls who suffer early child labor and are willing to go back to school.
Cain Mathema, the Education Minister in charge of schools, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that:“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.”
Meanwhile, schools are opening this month of October, a decline in girl’s attendance will decrease drastically as most of them were victims of abuse and got pregnant, and some are wives now, due to the Covid-19 lockdown which started back in March 2020.
Social support and financial resources are required for girls to fully utilize this window of opportunity.
Back then especially girls from marginalized families, had to come back to school after giving birth, as most of them could not afford to be home schooled, but now the government is saying no to expulsion and every pregnant girl to remain in school with others.
However, campaigners in the southern African country say girls will still need extra support to continue with their studies even if they keep attending classes while pregnant.
Pregnancy issues has been one of the reasons that girls in Zimbabwe could fail to return to classes after school holidays and now after the lockdown, so as a country we stand by giving every girl child the right to learn whether pregnant or not.
Comments
About Author
