COVID-19

ITUNDA, Tanzania — It is midday at Itunda, a tiny village in Tanzania’s southern highlands and Marietta Andrea* is perched awkwardly on a wooden stool, her protruding belly touching a make-shift stall as she briskly packs roasted groundnuts, encrusted with salt into thin polyethylene bags ready to sell.

“I’m just helping my mother. It is not something I would do if I was going to school,” says Andrea.

The 17-year-old girl, became pregnant and was expelled from school—crushing her future dreams. Andrea, who wanted to be a teacher, was lured by Bodaboda (motorcycle), who offered her free rides to school.

“He was just a friend, but when he started to give me gifts, I couldn’t resist the temptation,” Andrea tells Ubuntu Times.

Lack of comprehensive sex education means that Andrea blindly gave in to a sex predator who destroyed her future.

Once a hard-working student at Ilula Secondary School, Kilolo district, Iringa region, Andrea was yearning to become a teacher and help marginalized children in the impoverished village to get an education and succeed in life. Instead, she became pregnant thus her dreams melted away.

Distraught, Andrea, who’s heavily pregnant, is wobbling daily on a rugged terrain to the bustling market where her mother sells various consumer goods.

She is not alone. Many girls, who become pregnant are expelled from school every year.

Under the country’s 2002 policy, a student can be expelled from school if they commit an offense against morality.

“This is a bad policy. It blindly ignores the worsening plight of pregnant girls and young mothers” says Onesmo Ole Ngurumwa, a Dar es Salaam-based human rights defender.

In 2017 Tanzania President, John Magufuli entrenched this policy, when he publicly declared that girls who become pregnant should not be allowed to return to school.

“As long as I am president… no pregnant student will be allowed to return to school…After getting pregnant, you are done,” he stated.

Tanzania has one of highest adolescent pregnancy and birth rates in the world, with 21 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 having given birth, according to 2015/16 data by Tanzania Bureau of Statistics (TBS).

More than 55,000 schoolgirls in Tanzania have been expelled from schools over the last decade under this policy which blatantly ignores jarring realities that lead to pregnancies, campaigners said.

“If I get a chance to go back to school. I wouldn’t hesitate a moment. That’s would be the only way to realize my dreams,” says Andrea.

While Tanzania government has the duty to protect girls’ right to education and safeguard them from sexual exploitation, observers say, pregnant girls and young mothers are still treated with astounding contempt.

“I feel I am a laughing stock. Some people are scolding me while pointing an accusing finger,” says Andrea.

Teen pregnancy is the main factor forcing many girls in Iringa to drop out of school. This stark reality, badly affect young mothers and their babies.

Nestled on the plains of Udzungwa mountain ranges, the wind-swept Itunda village, is home to many HIV/AIDS orphans.

In the neighboring Masukanzi village, a tall, bubbly 19-year-old Hanifa Mdette sits on a mat, stirring porridge ready to feeds her plump two-year-old son. A wide-eyed cat mews, as a plume of smoke wafts from a shaky kitchen.

Mdette, who dropped out of school in 2017 says her future is bleak.

“I don’t think I can get any good work without education,” she says.

At the center of the crisis, is an entrenched patriarchal system and deep-rooted Hehe traditions where underage pregnancies are considered a curse, pregnant girls are ostracized.

However, there’s a glimmer of hope for Andrea and other young mothers as the World Bank has injected new funding which will partly be spent to address their worsening plight.

As part of its initiative to revamp ailing education system in Tanzania, the World Bank has approved a whopping 500 million USD loan, part of which will be used to re-instate pregnant girls and young mothers who are kicked out of school.

The $500 million Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project (SEQUIP) will benefit 6.5 million students in public schools and establish stronger educational pathways for those out of a formal school system.

The project is designed to help adolescent children to transition to upper secondary education. It offers pregnant girls, young mothers, and other vulnerable girls the possibility to return to school.

While Tanzanian children deserve better education majority of girls miss the opportunity every year, says Mara Warwick, World Bank’s Country Director for Tanzania.

“This is an important step in addressing the challenges that Tanzania children face throughout their education,” she says.

Although Tanzania adopted Free Basic Education Policy in 2015, which helped increased primary school enrollment from 8.3 to 10.1 million by 2018, and raise secondary school enrollment to 2.2 million from 1.8 million, observers say the government has failed to improve quality of education and reduce drop-out rates.

“Tanzania is suffering from a learning crisis where children are not in school, or are in school but not learning,” said Jaime Saavedra, World Bank’s Global Director for Education.

Human Rights Watch, however, criticized the World Bank for “failure to use its leverage” and caved to Tanzania’s discriminatory ban and practices, undermining its own commitment to non-discrimination.

Schoolgirls in Tanzania are routinely subjected to mandatory pregnancy test and those found pregnant are permanently expelled.

“The World Bank should be working with governments to move education systems toward full inclusion and accommodation of all girls in public schools, including those who are pregnant or parents,” said Elin Martinez, senior children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch in a statement.

Equality Now, an international charity that champions the rights of girls and women calls on the government to lift the discriminatory ban against school-going pregnant girls.

Joyce Ndalichako, Tanzania Minister for Education Science and Technology recently said that the government is committed to ensuring pregnant girls who drop out of school will be allowed to go back to public school.

“We wish to assure the general public and our partners that the government remains fully committed to seriously implement the SEQUIP project according to the project design and agreement made with the World Bank,” the Minister said in a statement.

This is the first time Tanzania officials publicly announced the girls who have “dropped out” of school, due to pregnancy and other reasons will be allowed to continue their education.

Girls’ rights activists, however, received this public statement with cautious optimism.

In an interview with Ubuntu Times, Judy Gitau, Africa Coordinator of Equality Now—a global charity campaigning for girls’ and women’s rights expressed cautious optimism on the government’s promise.

“This is the first positive declaration…in four years, if the government acts upon its promise,.. it will be a welcome first step towards pregnant adolescent girls finally realizing their rights to education,” she stressed.

“The government has been unequivocal in stating that pregnant girls will be barred from attending mainstream school, not just for duration of their pregnancy but for life,” said Gitau.

Under the World Bank-funded project, officials are striving to help all school drop-outs pursue their secondary education and halt the practice of expelling pregnant girls from public schools.

“The public notice comes hot on the heels of SEQUIP funds being released by the World Bank,  which has declared publicly that it has been advocating for girls access to education,” says Gitau.

Local and international civil society groups, including Equality Now, have been calling, urging the World Bank to withhold the funds until Tanzania withdraw discriminatory policy barring pregnant schoolgirls from attending school.

“We surmise that there is a direct correlation between the World Bank, finally approving its $500 million loan… and the country’s Minister of education releasing a public notice citing the inclusion of pregnant girls in accessing education,” she said.

Campaigners say this discriminatory policy has affected thousands of girls who are denied the right to education for life.

“It should be noted that some of these girls are victims of sexual violence and child marriages” Gitau said adding “it is a reflection of Tanzania government’s failure to address the root cause of adolescent pregnancies”

Education is crucial for fighting poverty and has an impact on social and economic welfare of individuals and the society.

Denying teenage mothers the right to education, campaigners say is equal to gender discrimination which reduces girls’ life opportunities, making it harder to fight poverty.

Gitau urged Tanzania authorities to seriously solve adolescent pregnancies and other economic and sexual exploitation of women and girls.

“Efforts to eradicate violence against girls and women in Tanzania must be stepped up and laws against sexual violence need to be better enforced to ensure that offenders are punished,” she said.

She called upon the government to eliminate stigma and discrimination borne by pregnant girls and adolescent mothers along with survivors of sexual violence.

As the world is reeling on the brink of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gitau warned Tanzania authorities to protect adolescent girls who are at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation.

“The closure of schools and other safeguarding institutions, quarantine rules and the restriction of movement, and loss of income in families as a result of the severe economic downturn, are all factors that increase the vulnerability of girls,” she said.

*Names have been changed to protect identities of the girls