Pregnancy in school: Was the minister right?
Dec 30, 2008
AMID tensions and suspicions about the rampant fires, education minister Namirembe Bitamazire was under pressure, with critics demanding that she resigns. They said she was too old to head the ministry.
By Vision reporter
AMID tensions and suspicions about the rampant fires, education minister Namirembe Bitamazire was under pressure, with critics demanding that she resigns. They said she was too old to head the ministry.
Somehow, she got away with it, until November, when the educationist said her ministry was planning to introduce a stringent policy that forbids pregnant students from sitting the national examinations.
There had been some reports of school girls being denied chance to sit for examinations by their respective schools simply because they had conceived.
Bitamazire said: “The school is meant for studying not producing children. We cannot be seen to condone a situation where girls get pregnant when they are still in school. This is immorality.â€
It was both amusing and ironic that the same day that Bitamazire’s story came out, the media carried another report entitled: “70-year-old sits A-Level exams today.†This implied that education has no age boundaries. Bitamazire asked the rhetorical question: “Why can’t they wait to finish the education cycle and they start having children?â€
This sounded like an attempt to decree the point in time when a woman should have a baby. It was a statement too harsh, especially from a woman minister; a woman who was fully aware that Uganda is struggling to bridge the gender gaps in primary and secondary schools.
What about the girls who become pregnant as a result of rape or defilement? Would the minister be happy to subject such a victim to carrying the rapist’s baby and then being denied a chance to study? The year ended without answers to these haunting questions.
AMID tensions and suspicions about the rampant fires, education minister Namirembe Bitamazire was under pressure, with critics demanding that she resigns. They said she was too old to head the ministry.
Somehow, she got away with it, until November, when the educationist said her ministry was planning to introduce a stringent policy that forbids pregnant students from sitting the national examinations.
There had been some reports of school girls being denied chance to sit for examinations by their respective schools simply because they had conceived.
Bitamazire said: “The school is meant for studying not producing children. We cannot be seen to condone a situation where girls get pregnant when they are still in school. This is immorality.â€
It was both amusing and ironic that the same day that Bitamazire’s story came out, the media carried another report entitled: “70-year-old sits A-Level exams today.†This implied that education has no age boundaries. Bitamazire asked the rhetorical question: “Why can’t they wait to finish the education cycle and they start having children?â€
This sounded like an attempt to decree the point in time when a woman should have a baby. It was a statement too harsh, especially from a woman minister; a woman who was fully aware that Uganda is struggling to bridge the gender gaps in primary and secondary schools.
What about the girls who become pregnant as a result of rape or defilement? Would the minister be happy to subject such a victim to carrying the rapist’s baby and then being denied a chance to study? The year ended without answers to these haunting questions.