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Teen pregnancies and school

Opinion & Analysis
“IN my administration as the President, no pregnant girl will go back to school... She has chosen that kind of life, let her take care of the child,” President John Magufuli said in 2017, thus setting the tone on how to deal with pregnant school girls in Tanzania.

guest column Miriam Tose Majome

“IN my administration as the President, no pregnant girl will go back to school… She has chosen that kind of life, let her take care of the child,” President John Magufuli said in 2017, thus setting the tone on how to deal with pregnant school girls in Tanzania.

IN many Tanzanian schools, pregnancy tests are now routine procedures for school girls since Magufuli got into power.

A morality clause was inserted into the education law in 2002 to allow schools to expel pregnant students.

Tanzanian schools are now allowed to expel pregnant school girls, but his predecessors like Jakaya Kikwete used to encourage teenage mothers to return and finish their formal schooling.

When Magufuli took office in 2015, he decreed a zero-tolerance policy on schoolgirl pregnancies, among other pronouncements which affect women’s reproductive rights. Under Magufuli, schoolgirls are automatically expelled if the mandatory pregnancy tests prove positive.

There is little to no chance of the girls returning to finish school after delivering their babies.

Government schools do not re-admit or enrol girls after they have been expelled for pregnancy.

The majority of Tanzanian girls have very limited options, like very expensive private colleges, which are way beyond the reach of most girls’ families, now with an extra mouth to feed.

The most viable option for the teen mothers is to attend adult vocational skills-training colleges to learn such skills as dressmaking and cookery so that they are able to qualify for menial jobs.

When a schoolgirl becomes pregnant in Tanzania, her career options dwindle. Magufuli’s hardline stance has won support among conservatives who praise it, saying it acts as a deterrent to teen pregnancies.

The expulsion of pregnant school girls violates the Tanzanian Constitution, but very few people would dare oppose the President. A Member of Parliament was arrested recently for criticising the policy.

CNN reports that NGO’s face deregistration if they openly oppose the President. Other African countries with a similar hardline stance on schoolgirl pregnancies are Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone. Some countries have adopted moderate policies which allow teenage mothers to return to school.

Zimbabwe is seeking to follow suit if the Education Amendment Bill is passed into law. Section 68 (d) (1) prohibits pupils from being expelled from school because of pregnancy. This will allow schoolgirls to be accorded maternity leave and return to the same school after delivery, since they cannot be expelled.

The proposal to allow girls to take maternity leave and return to school has drawn criticism from conservative circles.

The argument is that it serves as a bad example to other schoolgirls who may also choose to get pregnant.

The language and tone used is both hostile and sceptical. Contributing to the debate, Mpopoma MP Charles Moyo described girls who get pregnant at school as ‘rotten apples who spoil the barrel’.

School girls who get pregnant are regarded as bad examples. He talked about the need to separate the girls, who he said choose to have boyfriends as well as to be mothers.

He separated them from the other girls who choose school and choose to be ‘good’, while he said the pregnant girls chose to be bad. Conservative views regard teenage pregnancy as being the girl’s fault and a choice.

It is barely considered that some of the girls considered to be good girls could also be just as sexually active, but have secret abortions or use contraceptives.

For many pregnant schoolgirls, the only real choice they seem to make is to keep their pregnancies and risk permanent societal condemnation.

However, society only judges and condemns what it sees, but all may not be as it seems.

The girls who abort or use contraceptives are spared from harsh judgments and societal ostracisation and are even praised for being paragons of virtue.

Therefore, the argument that pregnant school girls influence other girls to become sexually active is disingenuous and the fears not properly founded.

Ordinarily, the men responsible for the pregnancy are barely ever held accountable while the pregnant girls are condemned and banished, and doors shut behind them.

In Tanzania, it is somewhat different as Magufuli is serious about stopping teen pregnancies.

Boys and men who make schoolgirls pregnant face prison sentences of up to 30 years.

Pregnant girls can be arrested for refusing to disclose the identities of the men who made them pregnant.

Conservatives recommend that girls who get pregnant should be punished and condemned for being wilfully indisciplined.

However, it has been proved that teenage pregnancies are usually the result of rape and sexual abuse.

This is compounded by ignorance as sexually active schoolgirls typically lack information about sexuality and reproduction.

Teenage girls almost have no access to family planning services and contraception. Society shames and condemns school girls if they try to seek contraceptive devices, while at the same time condemning them if they got pregnant.

In Tanzania, access to contraception and information is becoming more and more difficult and attitudes to its usage are set to change negatively.

Magufuli has urged Tanzanian women to stop using contraception in order to increase the country’s population so as to stimulate the economy.

He described women who use contraceptives as ‘lazy’. He is reported to have ordered the suspension of family planning advertisements on TV and radio.

It is likely to get harder for women to get contraceptives and impossible for girls. Sexually active schoolgirls who remain active risk getting pregnant at higher rates as well as being expelled from school.

Without contraception, the other option for sexually active school girls is unsafe abortions which may lead to death and other serious health complications.

It remains to be seen how successful Magufuli’s ambitious plan to eradicate teenage pregnancies in Tanzania will be, but for now, the rates remain high.

Official 2010 statistics showed that a quarter of Tanzanian girls aged between 15 and 19 are mothers or pregnant. Child marriages are very common in Tanzania as 37% of women aged between 20 and 24 were married before they turned 18. Zimbabwean statistics are not encouraging either.

In 2017, Zimbabwe reportedly recorded the highest teen pregnancy rate in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Ministry of Health, UN Population Fund and National Family Planning Council reports show that up to 19% of girls between 15 and 19 years were pregnant.

These are no mean figures and should send reality and alarm bells ringing.

Obviously and without a doubt, schoolgirls should refrain from voluntary sexual activity.

The best and most ideal form of contraception will always be abstinence. However, as the statistics show, many Zimbabwean teenagers are now sexually active.

Therefore, teen pregnancies will remain high and schoolgirls must be supported when they get pregnant. Their constitutional rightsto basic education and freedom from discrimination must be upheld. As the statistics show, teenage pregnancies cannot be wished away or ignored. To do so is foolhardy and dangerous.