Fight stigma against pregnant girls, not for transfers
Published On January 18, 2018 » 2472 Views» By Evans Musenya Manda » Opinion
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THE issue of the Re-entry Policy which allows girls who fall pregnant to return to school after delivery is a contentious one which always has proponents and antagonists.
While the Government and some other citizens feel that the policy, which was introduced in 1997, is some kind of panacea to high level of girl-child education dropout, others think it promotes immorality among the girls.
Those against the policy think that the emphasis on the retention of the girls who have children encourages the girls to indulge in sexual activities knowing that even if they got pregnant they would be allowed to continue with their education, at least after delivery.
They further say this guarantee for places in school after giving birth removes the sense of abstinence among the girls, thereby encouraging them to become sexually reckless.
From Education Minister Dennis Wanchinga’s comments, however, the policy has not been fully effective because some girls, despite the policy, opt to completely drop out after giving birth for fear of discrimination at school.
To curb that discrimination, Dr Wanchinga says school heads should transfer to other institutions girls who fall pregnant and want to continue learning but fear to be stigmatised once their maternity leave ends.
According to him, the move to transfer the young mothers to other schools is aimed at encouraging the girl-child to continue with school instead of her dropping out after delivery.
That sounds like a solution but is that effective or, indeed, is it the best there is to be done?
What of sensitisation and other measures aimed at making society accept the policy?
It should accept that there will always be some children who would become pregnant while at school and that they should not be condemned to death for that.
Isn’t getting pregnant before marriage or indeed at a tender age like any other sins which people commit every day?
What of Jesus’ teaching as espoused in John 8:7 that let he that has not sinned cast the first stone?
While not encouraging girls or indeed any unmarried persons to indulge in sexual activities, we are mindful of the fact that some of these girls are forced to do so by circumstances, sometimes by adults who are supposed to be their guardians and so forth.
Indeed, while not encouraging sexual immorality among the girl-child, society should forgive and accept those who have ‘made the mistake’ and want to go back to school because that is the positive thing to do.
We agree with Dr Wanchinga that propagating an ostrich mentality of burying the head in the sand on matters of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) would not help in any way.
We equally note that championing the need for the transfer of girls after delivery could seem to be positive in the short-term but in the long-term is tantamount to burying the heads in the sand.
Once more the panacea is to fight against stigmatisation so that society, including fellow pupils, fully embrace the Re-entry Policy and accept the girls after delivery into communities and schools.
Zambia has fought and won against stigmatisation before and can still do so now on this issue.
In saying that we have in mind the amount of stigma which, not so long ago, was attached to people living with HIV/AIDS.
Those days, people known to be HIV-positive were literally shunned by relatives as they also suffered different forms of discrimination at places of work and elsewhere.
With massive public awareness and education campaign people living positively slowly but surely became accepted and are now able to mingle and eat freely with those who are HIV-negative, for instance.
Within the learning environment, previously even female students who got pregnant while schooling at tertiary learning institutions suffered some level of stigmatisation, which is no more.
Now pregnant women freely attend college and university classes and sit for their examinations while expecting, which is as it should be.

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