Girls in A School talent Show
A few years ago, I attended a graduation ceremony at some primary school in Kigoma rural. Among those present was a 13-year-old girl who watched the event from a distance. She too was supposed to be graduating that day.
Wearing a red jumper, a long kitenge skirt and worn out slippers, Faraja, who carried her three-month-old son on her back watched sadly as her colleagues celebrated the end of seven years of primary education.
Faraja together with five other girls in her class had been expelled from school a few months before they sat for their final exams because they were pregnant.
This shattered her dream of a bright future and that of her parents of getting out of poverty. They had expected her to go to university, get a job and help them in old age.
Instead, the poor parents had now an extra mouth to feed.
Thousands of girls in Tanzania have their journey to obtaining an education cut short every year as a result of pregnancy.
Tanzania is said to have one of the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in the world, affecting the girls’ health, education, future employment and reaching their full potential in life. Every year more than 8,000 girls drop out from school due to pregnancy.
The 2010 Legal and human Rights Centre (LHRC)’s Tanzania Human Report has it that pregnancies are a major hindrance to the ability of girls to access education.
“The government has been too reluctant to address the fate of school girls who become pregnant after they have been registered for their final exams,” says LHRC.
The report goes on to say that in September, 2010, the then Deputy Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Mwantumu Mahiza, said all standard seven girls who became pregnant after having registered for the final exams would be allowed to sit for the exams.
The minister had instructed that pregnant girls remain at home and only be allowed to go sit for the final exams.
However, LHRC reports that most of the girls who had gotten pregnant that year were not allowed to write their exams. Some were barred from continuing with their exams after they wrote their first paper.
According to 2012 Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania, a total of 610 primary school girls dropped out of school due to pregnancy in 2012. In 2011, 5,157 secondary school girls dropped out due to pregnancies.
And what happens to those who impregnate school girls? Unfortunately, it’s only the girls that get punished. In most cases, the men who impregnate them normally go scot-free. If it’s a fellow student, he continues with his education.
In 2003, the ministry of education made a regulation aiming at punishing those who impregnate or assist in marrying school girls.
Dr. Hellen Kijo-Bisimba, the Executive Director of LHRC says; “the regulation is not implemented.I only heard once of a boy who was held responsible for impregnating a school girl. We have been doing a lot of campaigns regarding this but nothing has been done so far. We need a law on this.”
When I was in secondary school, we used to be taken for pregnancy tests either at the beginning of the term or any time someone was suspected of being pregnant.
We would be fished out of class and driven to the general hospital in town in the school truck. School girls in uniform used to be a common sight in public hospitals. Everyone knew what they were there for.
If someone was found to be pregnant, that would be the end of their schooling.Today some teachers and matrons are considerate.
When we were about to sit for our form six exams for example, our matron covered up for a pregnant classmate so she could sit for her final exams which were only weeks away. The girl proceeded to university after she gave birth.
Lack of sexual education
Marie Stopes Tanzania’s Country Director, Ulla Muller says the likelihood of a woman to become the breadwinner if she gets pregnant when young is high. And so is the likelihood of remaining in poverty.
But when a girl is educated, the chances of her children getting an education are high.
Girls need to be given a chance to fulfill their potential and one way of doing so is giving them sexual and reproductive health education and services. This will enable them to know their bodies and make informed choices. But this is not happening.
According to a United Nations Tanzania Delivering as One July 2010 write up on preventing adolescent pregnancies, the lack of appropriate and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights education within the educational system is one of the leading factors for young girls to become pregnant.
“Currently only the secondary schools’ curriculum includes topics such as HIV and the reproductive system.
These are part of biology subject of the schools’ curriculum. Life skills are taught as extra curricula subject,” reads the write up in part.
Not all schools have teachers trained in teaching the subject as most of the programmes are managed by NGOs or specific projects.
Because they risk being expelled both from home and school, school girls resort to abortion when they get pregnant. And because abortion is illegal in Tanzania, the girls do all sorts of dangerous things to terminate the pregnancies.
Some die in the process and some lose their wombs altogether.
“There are a lot of unsafe abortions in Tanzania. It is roughly estimated at about 450,000 abortions a year,” says Ulla, the MST Country Director. It is estimated that about 19% of all maternal deaths are related to unsafe abortions.
Light at the end of the tunnel
For a long time now, discussions have been going on between government and other stakeholders to consider allowing girls back to school after delivery.
In 2010, the government developed national guidelines on how to enable pregnant girls to return to school after giving birth. This followed formation of a team to collect stakeholders’ views on the matter in 2007 where over 90 per cent respondents supported the idea.
The Gender Focal Point official in the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, Winifrida Rutahindurwa says her office has been trying to convince the government to allow girls back to school after delivery.
“We have already presented the issue to the parliamentary committee concerned. The Education and Training Policy of 1995 is under review and the component to allow pregnant girls in school is in there. We are waiting for the new policy to be endorsed,” says Rutahindurwa.
The UN Tanzania Delivering as One says implementing the guidelines is essential to allow girls’ to reach their full potential.
Rutahindurwa says not all girls get pregnant due to carelessness. Some are victims of gender violence, some are impregnated by relatives. “Sometimes it happens to innocent children who are raped.
Expelling such girls from school when they get pregnant is adding to their torture. Sometimes these girls are called prostitutes,” says Rutahindurwa.
She says it’s high time girls are allowed back to school like is the case in neighbouring Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Zanzibar.
Other African countries that allow girls back to school are Botswana and Guinea.
In the guidelines, it is proposed that if the pregnant girl is suspended from school, the boy should also be suspended until when the girl returns to school.
“We proposed men who make school girls pregnant to be imprisoned for 30 years as the case with rapists,” says Rutahindurwa.
Expulsion of school girls is against several regional and international conventions ratified by Tanzania that call for equal provision of education to both girls and boys.
The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child requires states parties to the Charter to have all appropriate measures to ensure that children who become pregnant before completing their education have an opportunity to continue with their education.
Global leaders call for action
At Women Deliver’s third global conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this May, global leaders are expected to call for action on critical issues related to women’s health and empowerment.
There will be a presidential session on girls' education, discussing how education is key to women's equality and participation in society.
The panel will feature advocates for girls' and women's education.
According to Stephanie Platis, Associate at Global Health Strategies, the panel will explore what needs to be done in order to secure education for girls and women everywhere and highlight the undeniable benefits of doing so. The panel will also highlight successful programs for girls’ education.
Jill Sheffield, Women Deliver Founder and President says with the MDG target date just around the corner, the time is now to ensure that girls and women are central pillars in the new development agenda.
“We have made incredible strides toward improving women’s health and rights in recent years, and we cannot stop now. Women Deliver 2013 will offer a powerful forum for ensuring that we continue to deliver for girls and women for years to come.”
The Malaysia conference is expected to convene more than 5,000 experts and advocates from more than 160 countries. The conference aims to ensure that investments in girls and women remain a global priority in the lead-up to the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) deadline and beyond.
Some of the speakers at the conference include Melinda Gates, Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).