Pregnant school girls: Zimbabwe’s law a good start

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Education re-entry or continuation policies for pregnant schoolgirls, while still controversial in some contexts, have gone a long way towards securing their right to remain in school. 

Where effectively implemented, the measures have helped girls build their careers, edging them closer to a more secure, economically empowered future. 

These are girls who would otherwise have been struck off the school register at the point of their teen pregnancies, contradicting efforts to “leave no one behind”, whereas the male partners in the pregnancies continue their education and build their careers.

Although these measures are invaluable to ensure girls’ right to education during and after pregnancy, they must be complemented by sexual and reproductive health education, encouraging girls to prioritise completing their secondary school education and their health by delaying their sexual debut. 

This benefits their decision-making capacity and typically leads to better life choices. 

In 2021, Human Rights Watch noted that at least 30 countries in Africa had measures to protect pregnant students’ and adolescent mothers’ right to education to varying degrees. But some countries still have policies that are discriminatory and bar pregnant girls and teenage mothers from going to school.

The implementation of these policies provides insights for a review of the structural changes needed to strengthen their effectiveness. Zimbabwe, for instance, revised its Education Act in 2019 to include no discrimination based on pregnancy. According to researchers Theresa Takafuma and Rutendo Chirume, in an article published last month, progress has been slow and more needs to be done. 

Zimbabwe is among the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with a high rate of teenage pregnancies, according to Education International, a global union federation of teachers’ trade unions. In 2020 it recorded more than 6 000 girls who became pregnant during the first wave of Covid-19, when schools closed for more than three months. In January last year, nearly 5 000 girls were pregnant. 

Furthermore, the Covid-19 school closures left many learners vulnerable. Once out of school, these teenage mothers have to find domestic work to support their children, with some condemned to child marriage, because they are forced to live with the men responsible for the pregnancy. 

The poor implementation of return-to-school policies has resulted in many pregnant girls dropping out.

In interviews with girls, some teachers, family and community members, for Africa in Fact, Good Governance Africa’s quarterly publication, respondents said that despite enabling laws, pregnancy itself can threaten girls’ health, because often they are physiologically too immature to carry a pregnancy and deliver a baby without life-threatening complications. 

Adolescent maternal mortality is a global concern, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) noting that complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for girls aged 15 to 19 years globally. 

The WHO further notes that: “Of the estimated 5.6-million abortions that occur each year among adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years, 3.9-million are unsafe, contributing to maternal mortality, morbidity, and lasting health problems. Adolescent mothers (ages 10 to 19 years) face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections than women aged 20 to 24 years, and babies of adolescent mothers face higher risks of low birth weight, premature delivery, and severe neonatal conditions.” 

Clearly, adolescent or teen pregnancy presents a new layer of health difficulties for girls, some already vulnerable to poverty. Separate interviews with senior women teachers (who requested anonymity) from Bulawayo, Inyathi, Shurugwi and Marondera in Zimbabwe confirm this.

“The policy only exists on paper,” one teacher said. “Once learners leave the school system due to pregnancy, only a few return to write their examinations, as they experience a new layer of abuse, even by the teachers. Some girls have had to endure endless summons by women teachers, who not only subject them to intrusive questions, but sometimes ask the learners to display, and even request to touch, their protruding stomachs.”

This additional layer of problems was also highlighted by Rosa (not her real name). She told Africa in Fact that in 2014, aged 17, she became pregnant, and had to endure the stigma of being “a pregnant learner in uniform”, something perceived as a moral contradiction. 

This was before the Education Amendment Act, which states that “no child shall be excluded from school based on pregnancy”. Rosa acknowledged the importance of this law, saying that she quit school during pregnancy and only returned after giving birth. 

She said that one of the immediate problems is the ostracisation fuelled by the gossip among family, community, colleagues and even school authorities. Most girls cannot cope, resulting in some quitting school and going off to get married, she said. “Maybe some girls have been lucky, but once known to be pregnant, the stigma is unbearable.” 

Rosa said she was in the second term of her form three studies when she became pregnant, and re-entered school two years later: “I still felt a desire to complete my education like my peers, but, importantly, now realised the need for a career that would enable me to provide for my child. By being afforded another chance, I was able to catch up on my learning. But I was only able to do so because my mother was there to provide good care for my daughter.” 

Measures that help girls complete school can deliver significant career-building and economic empowerment benefits. But, as Rosa noted, unless one gets sufficient counselling and family support, it’s not always an easy journey. 

Zimbabwe’s implementation of measures to end discrimination against learners based on pregnancy coincided with — and was hampered by — the retrogressive effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. But it is the pre-existing, structural barriers that pose the greatest challenge. 

Some Zimbabwean legislators confirm how unwelcome this conversation still is. Ronald Nyathi, the MP for Shurugwi North, argued that these measures encouraged child marriages and pregnancy. But Afrobarometer findings presented in July, by the Mass Public Opinion Institute in Bulawayo, showed that almost seven out of 10 Zimbabweans (69%) support pregnant girls’ re-entry to school.

Effective implementation of re-entry measures requires multisectoral and multipronged structural interventions. As Zimbabwean child rights advocate Caleb Mutandwa noted: “The law has not taken off very well on the ground. So much needs to be done to transform mindsets and attitudes at all levels … The Act itself was meant to be simultaneously supported by other services and structures, to enable the girls to balance the demands of learning with those of pregnancy and motherhood. 

“Without structurally entrenched support services, it is one of those good laws that remains just that: a law on paper.” 

Central Kenya’s Serene Haven Secondary School is one example of best-practice of the value of in-built daycare and counselling support services, especially in cases where family support structures are nonexistent. 

There should be ongoing campaigns to foster a paradigm shift in social norms and perceptions that continue to be a barrier to a pregnant girl child’s education. Apart from dealing with the shame and stigma, pregnancy is an experience with physiological and emotional demands that are often incompatible with those of learning. 

The efficacy of re-entry policies should be improved by several measures, including adequate stakeholder-wide policy awareness campaigns and building the capacity of school personnel at various levels, through training and much-needed material resources for supporting girl learners. 

Other measures include: reducing or eliminating fees for the girls, offering bursaries and providing books and other necessities, something several governments are already doing, as well as providing ongoing mentorship, guidance, coaching, counselling and psycho-social support services at all levels.

An earlier version of this article appeared in Africa in Fact, the flagship quarterly publication of Good Governance Africa. Sikhululekile Mashingaidze is the lead researcher on human security and climate change at Good Governance Africa. Simangele Moyo-Nyede is the principal researcher for the governance and policy think-tank, the Mass Public Opinion Institute in Zimbabwe.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.