Pregnant schoolgirls to go home for a year, says ministry

The Ministry of Education has said girls who conceive at school should be sent home at three months of pregnancy and return after the baby has turned at least six months old.
According to the revised policy passed in 2020, the ministry also proposed that if the boy who impregnated the girl is a student, he too should be asked to leave at the same time with the girl and only come back after the girl has given birth.

These decisions are contained in the ministry’s “revised guidelines for the prevention and management of teenage pregnancy in school settings in Uganda.” The policy was passed last year to handle issues of retention of pregnant girls at school and their re-entry after delivery.

“The girl should go on mandatory maternity leave when she is at least three months pregnant. If the fellow learner is responsible for the pregnancy, the boy shall also be given mandatory leave at the same time the girl goes on leave. He will only return after she has delivered,” the ministry’s new policy reads in part. 

Also, the adolescent mother is advised to find placement in another school to avoid stigma.
To implement this, schools have been asked to always request information about new learners from their previous schools to track their record. 
“Once the adolescent mother’s baby is at least six months old, she shall be allowed to be admitted back to school unconditionally,” adds the report. 

Schools are advised to have a health committee which will be chaired by the Parents-Teachers Association or the School Management Committee. 
The school’s senior woman and man will coordinate the committee’s activities, including counselling other girls about consequences of early sexual activity, negative peer influences and building self-esteem. 

Examined
Girls will be examined for pregnancy at least once a term and if detected, the teachers are required to protect the girl against discrimination.
Mr Ismail Mulindwa, the director for Basic Education, told Daily Monitor that their motive is to secure the health of the expectant mother and her unborn child before they can return to school.
However, he said the pregnant girls will be allowed to come back and sit their examinations even when they have not been studying.

“When you are pregnant, you go home because schools are not medical facilities. Supposing we leave you in school and the baby wants to come out, what do we do? We want these pregnant girls to be safe. We recommend they go home, nurse their pregnancy and when you give birth, come back,” Mr Mulindwa explained. 
The ministry has over the years grappled with how to handle teenage pregnancies in schools with no official documented action to take against the vice. 

Several districts reported learners who were impregnated during the lockdown after schools were shut down following coronavirus outbreak in March last year. 
But Mr Mulindwa said they are yet to conduct a study to establish how many girls were affected.

Ms Rose Wakikona, a programme officer at Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development, said teenage pregnancy will remain a challenge unless both government and parents give options to their children about sexual reproductive health services.

“As a country, we have decided that abstinence is the only route but clearly our girls have failed to abstain and so have the boys. They end up pregnant in exploitative relationships because they can’t control their own bodies or the way society perceives them. Girls need to be empowered to say no and boys need to be empowered to understand that a girl’s no is a no. Until we offer the option, there is no way we are going to succeed,” Ms Wakikona said. 

 Previous efforts by government to introduce sexuality education in schools was greeted with resistance from parents and mainstream religious bodies. 
Although the Education minister, Ms Janet Museveni, launched the national sexuality education framework in 2018, religious leaders are opposed to some of its content, which they say will increase sexual immorality among teenagers or school going children.
 
 
Pregnant girls fail to return to school 

Thousands of school girls across the country did not return to school after getting pregnant or married during the Covid-19 lockdown,  our survey indicated.
Statistics from Kitgum Diocese showed that 3,430 teenage girls between 14 and 16 years got pregnant between March and October 2020. Of these, 780 are from Kitgum, 1,000 from Lamwo, 730 from Agago and 920 from Pader districts.
In Kabale, the senior probation and social welfare officer, Ms Monica Muhumuza Nzeirwe, said 1,014 teenage pregnancies were recorded at different health centres in the district between January and September 2020. The child mothers are aged between 15 and 19.

Mr Moses Mudidiri, the head teacher of Kibuku Senior Secondary School, said 20 girls from his institution got pregnant.
The Budaka District health officer, Dr Elisa Mulwani, said the rate of teenage pregnancy in the area stands at 24.7 per cent. 
Mr Aron Isabirye, executive director of Infinity Network Development Foundation Uganda, an NGO, said about 130 underage girls got married during the Covid-19 lockdown in Lwengo District.

“There are many cases which go unreported when parents have connived with the perpetrators to secretly settle the matter,” he said.
Mr Alfred Besigensi, the Kabale acting district health officer, said teenage pregnancies are likely to double by the end of 2021.

Mr Rwaheru Byaruhanga, the chairperson of Kachwakumu Village in Kanara Sub-county, Ntoroko District, said more than 20 school girls were impregnated in the area.
The head of the Child and Family Protection Unit at Kabarole Central Police Station, Ms Agnes Angom, said the majority of early marriages and teenage pregnancies are not reported by parents. 

“In January 2021 alone, we received 14 cases of defilement,” she said.
Up to 2.5 million more girls around the world are at risk of early marriage in the next five years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Save the Children warned.

The policy is ill-informed, discriminative to girls - stakeholders

Immaculate Mayira, mother
“That policy is ill-informed. We can’t start treating teenagers as adults. They are not fully aware of the consequences. We can’t assume that every teenager that gets pregnant had consensual sex with the boy and now they should first stop and raise their child. Most teen pregnancies are forced by uncles, fathers.
 
The policy is encouraging abortions. The abortions will increase. If, as a mother, my boss can allow me three months for leave after giving birth, why is this teenage child being given a year and a half? They have literally cut you off from life to raise that pregnancy. Government should find better ways of how to continue educating a pregnant girl as opposed to pushing them out of school.” 
            

Samuel Mubiru, Naguru Youth Health Network          
“They are making pregnancy criminal. How sure are they that that boy is the one who made her pregnant? The girl might have had more than one partner. Parents’ actions don’t allow their children to abstain. You find six children, both boys and girls sleeping in one room with the parents. Boys and girls no longer  fear HIV/Aids. 

They fear pregnancy. A girl will warn you not to make them pregnant but will never ask for your HIV status. This is dangerous. Parents are money hunters. They don’t want to talk to their children. Girls who get pregnant when they are young have children who give birth when they are young. Parents play your role. Government play your role.”
 
 
Charles Owekmeno, Sexual Reproductive Health Rights Alliance Uganda national coordinator 
“That is a shock. We have been pushing for those girls to remain in school. That is a very unfortunate policy and guideline from the Ministry of Education because teenage pregnancy shouldn’t be a reason to discriminate a girl or deprive them of their rights to education. 
I think the approach of the ministry should be more supportive to help the girls continue with their school. We are already struggling with challenge that almost 90 per cent of the girls that get pregnant end up dropping out of school. 

If we bring such policy, it will be 100 per cent because girls will not continue with their education. Most of these girls are pregnant because they don’t have proper information and schools don’t have sexuality programmes while others  are cases of rape and defilement, and all these forms of manipulation.

If the education system begins to victimise, deprive and discriminate them, it means that the girls will have no support from anywhere. Besides, most of them are already discriminated by parents. Where will they get support from? That is why we see some of them going for abortions. Some of them end up running away from home and are suffering and can’t go for antenatal services because the health system is also not supportive. 

Let’s use supportive approach to keep these girls in school. Create mechanism so that they access antenatal so they don’t lose their education. The cost of these girls dropping out at that age to the family and country is so high.”

Annah Kukundakwe, programme officer at Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development:
“Pregnancy is unique and treats women uniquely. Many girls like other women, their health begins to stabilise at three months of pregnancy. There are those who are energetic and can carry through the pregnancy. So why send them away if they can manage to study all through and yet the same policy says they can come back to do exams? If you deny the pregnant teenagers [the chance to go to school]  when the pregnancy is still young, why allow them to come when they are almost due?”