Pregnant matriculants ‘kicked out’ before exams
Parents seek help of SA Human Rights Commission
● Two pregnant pupils at a KwaZulu-Natal school say they were kicked out ahead of the start of matric exams next week.
One of the pupils, Lindokuhle Khanyile, says she was instructed to leave the exam room at Tabhane Secondary School in Bergville in the north of the province on September 19 while she was writing one of her preparatory papers.
Another grade 12 pupil, Thobile Khumalo, says she was suspended on September 12 because she was pregnant, while grade 11 pupil Thembelihle Hlatshwayo, who was also pregnant, was forced to leave in July.
A fourth pupil, who feared being kicked out of school after suspecting she was pregnant, told the Sunday Times that she took potassium permanganate to terminate the pregnancy. The pupil ended up in hospital for four days after she began bleeding on September 5 while on her way to school.
A total of 921,879 matric pupils attending state schools will sit for their exams from next Monday.
Khanyile’s parents lodged a complaint with the KwaZulu-Natal branch of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on September 20 asking for its urgent intervention after appeals to the provincial education department fell on deaf ears.
In their letter of complaint, her parents said she was ill-treated “at the hands of the school principal and governing body members”.
Khanyile, 21, who is five months pregnant, told the Sunday Times that while writing the physical science paper 2 on September 19, a cleaner told her the governing body chair Khumbula Mathebula wanted her to pack her bags and go home.
Mathebula has denied this. The school also said it had not barred any pupils from attending class.
But Khanyile said: “I felt so embarrassed because it was done in front of the other learners. I felt empty, violated and abused because I was not being treated as a human being.”
She said she was initially given a letter on September 12 asking her parents to come to the school after a teacher asked her to confirm if she was pregnant.
The next day the principal told her mother she must take her home and she should only return after giving birth next year.
“The school said they are not allowed to keep pregnant girls in school. I am only five months pregnant and could have still written the exams. My baby is only due in February,” Khanyile said.
She said that in a parents’ meeting on September 29 where her pregnancy was discussed, Mathebula had indicated that 200 pregnant pupils had been banned from school since 1996. An audio recording of the meeting, taken by her relative Samuel Mayise, appears to confirm this.
On the recording, Mathebula condemns the pregnancies at the school and repeats an old myth that a pregnant pupil will cause her classmates to fall asleep.
Khanyile was given a place at Colenso Combined School last Tuesday.
“My new school is aware I’m pregnant but they are treating me very nicely. They even allowed me to wear my previous school’s uniform.”
Khanyile, who bagged two distinctions in the June exams, said her preparations for the final exams were badly hampered after she was barred from her previous school.
“I only managed to write three of my papers in the preparatory exams, yet these exams are so critical.”
Her parents wrote a lengthy letter of complaint to the KwaZulu-Natal education department, but said they had not received a response.
Khumalo’s mother, Phindile, confirmed her daughter had been suspended and was not back at school.
Hlatshwayo, who was five months pregnant when she was told to leave the school in July, said she had still not returned. “I don’t feel well; I am very stressed.”
The pupil who aborted her pregnancy said she did it because she was afraid she would be kicked out of school. “I know my parents would have been angry with me if they found out I was pregnant, but they would have accepted the baby.”
She was one-month pregnant when she terminated the pregnancy.
According to the national policy on the prevention and management of pupil pregnancy, “schools will allow the pregnant learner to remain in school during and after pregnancy”.
It states that pupils who are more than six months pregnant will be required to submit a medical certificate indicating the status of their pregnancy and estimated delivery date.
The SAHRC’s Andre Gaum said this was a concerning issue, and a clear violation of the right to basic education.
“The commission is concerned that the conduct of the school is reactionary and goes against the Bill of Rights, particularly the human dignity of learners and the discrimination they are subjected to.”
He said they called on the school and the provincial education department to support pregnant pupils, “ensuring they continue to receive learning materials and are not ostracised by the schooling community”.
Expressing outrage, Faranaaz Veriava, Section 27 head of education, said it was “definitely unconstitutional and pregnancy discrimination”.
Mathebula denied instructing the cleaner to remove Khanyile from the exam room. “I wasn’t there. I don’t know anything about that,” he said.
He also denied that pregnant pupils were prevented from staying at school.
“I think it’s people trying to destroy my name because they can’t become appointed as members of the governing body.”
Principal Simon Zungu said he “did not know anything about the matter”.
The KwaZulu-Natal education department did not respond to questions sent to it on Wednesday.