by MUBATSI ASINJA HABATI
Two weeks before Uganda ended the longest school closure in the world owing to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education and Sports instructed all primary and secondary schools to allow pregnant students to return to school so as to complete their education.
With funding from donors, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports issued a 40-page “revised guidelines for prevention and management of pregnancy in school settings”.
Among these guidelines is the rationale that education is a right and “there is need for change in attitudes towards pregnant girls, their contribution in school, and subsequent re-entry to school. These attitudes are gender-biased, violate the girl child’s right to education.”
The donor UN agencies that deal with children and reproductive health have been campaigning across Africa for states to change their stance on treating girls who become pregnant while in school.
All Africa for more