New Education Act reduces gender gap in education
As Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in commemorating 16 days against Gender Based Violence, it is important to highlight some of the achievements that have resulted from intense campaigns made over the years. One of the major milestones that quickly comes to mind is the tremendous effort put in to ensure every child has access to basic education, especially the girl child.
Government recently passed the Education Amendment Act of 2020 which ensures that even pregnant girls receive basic education.
Section 68c (1) states “No pupil shall be excluded from school for non-payment of school fees or on the basis of pregnancy.”
However, it is important for Government to ensure that stigmatision which has been heavily entrenched in society and school systems is eliminated. There is need to put systems that ensure pregnant teenagers receive the same assistance and attention as every other student.
In conservative cultures such as Zimbabwe, stigma around adolescent pregnancy and harmful social norms about pregnancy outside of marriage is extremely strong. The stigma is extended into public discourse and policymaking spaces where the stigma is exacerbated.Until the gazetting of the new Education Amendment Act of 2020 in March, Zimbabwe’s schools’ re-entry policy allowed pregnant girls into school only after delivery. The regulation allowed three months’ maternity leave for pregnant schoolgirls and did not allow a girl to go back to the same school.
This left numerous obstacles to the girls in achieving basic education, however nothing was said or done to the partners of the impregnated girls.
In most not all cases if the partners are of the same age, they are left to continue with their education.
The girl child however has subjected physical and emotional torture both at home and school set up starting a vicious cycle of genderbased violence. Some groups of the society still strongly feel pregnant girls have no place in school as they had “decided” to become mothers and should not be allowed back to school as they were “bad apples that would corrupt others”. At the recent public hearings for the amendment, enactment and realignment of laws to allow children as young as 12 years to have access to reproductive health services, including contraceptives conducted by Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care and the Thematic Committee on HIV and AIDS at the Harare City Sports Centre, some groups castigated Government for passing the legislation on pregnant girls. “Why should a pregnant girl be left to attend classes with my child who I have been disciplining at home,” one Mrs Magwaza said. The same sentiments were also said in Parliament, Mpopoma- Pelandaba MP Hon Charles Moyo in 2019 who said: “A rotten apple spoils the barrel. I want to say, it will not be good for other pupils as well when a person is impregnated, she ceases to be a pupil or a student, she becomes a mother.
“Surely, we must separate those who want to do their school work properly without any disturbances, without being close to the bad behaviour that will be exhibited by those who would have been impregnated by other people. I totally disagree. Those who chose to have boyfriends and those who chose to be mothers must be separated from pupils.”
The sentiments mirror how girls who fall pregnant are viewed in society and how subsequently end up being denied basic education.
Hope for Adolescences and Youth Organisation (HAYO) project officer Ms Tsitsi Masvusvu of Hope for Adolescences and Youth Organisation (HAYO) said there was need for systems to be put in place to ensure pregnant girls have support and assistance in school.
“It is important for people to know that some of these girls are raped or sexually abused by relatives or guardians thus the pregnancies will not be intentional,” she said. “So, they have every right to receive education without discrimination and feeling ashamed. “It is important gender discrimination is stemmed out from the highest to the lowest power yielding authorities in the society. “We need support systems in school such as health officers at schools and awareness programmes on those in power on how handle pregnant girls.” According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2014, among women aged 15-49 years, about one in 20 (5 percent) were married before age 15 and among women aged 20-49 years, about three (32,8 percent) were married before age 18.
Other girls are forced by their families to drop out of school to become tokens of appeasing avenging spirits, entering into early marriages and falling pregnant as young as 15. Other causes of adolescent pregnancies include sexual exploitation and rape. Thus, it is important for Government to come up with awareness programmes for leaders and educators on how the amended act seeks to ensure that the right to education which is enshrined in the constitution is enjoyed by everyone. The public also needs to be taught how exclusion of girls from the schools and denying them education affects them and generations to come.
State of the World Population 2019 Report (Unfinished Business), highlights how women with limited education a little say when it comes to reproductive health.
“Inequitable gender norms limit the ability of women to freely make fundamental decisions about when, and with whom, to have sex, about the use of contraception or healthcare and about whether and when to seek higher education or employment. The struggle for rights and choice is indeed a huge one for adolescent girls,” the report states.
As Zimbabwe joins 27 African other countries that have laws or policies that protect adolescent girls’ education during pregnancy and motherhood, it is important to ensure the learning environment for these girls is conducive.