By Sitembile Siwawa
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| Early Pregnancies still remain a challenge |
WHEN Annie Mumba became pregnant 15 years ago, her life was subjected to poverty. worse still, her parents rejected her. As if that was not enough, the marriage she was promised by her boyfriend who was a classmate never materialised.
She thought her dream of holding chalk in her hands and standing in front of pupils was shattered but thanks to the re-entry policy, she is now a teacher.
In 1997, the Zambian government through the Ministry of Education announced the re-entry policy to ensure that girls who fall pregnant while in school could go back and complete their education.
Like Annie, many girls have been able to complete their education due to the re-entry policy and are making meaningful contribution towards developing the nation.
This also entails that these young females can take their children to school because of being economically empowered.
Today, girls from all walks of life in the country are benefitting from this policy and one such district is Mporokoso in the Northern Province.
Mporokoso district is slowly benefitting from the re-entry policy as the education board in the area is making headway in ensuring that girls are not left out in sharing school places with the boys.
In order to make the policy produce its intended results, the education board in the district has taken to sensitising teachers, pupils and the community on appreciating the policy.
The district education board secretary Mateo Yambayamba described the re-entry policy as an effective tool that he uses to convince girls to get back into school.
Mr Yambayamba said for a long time now, the district has not utilised the policy. However, the story is different now as more education officials have taken keen interest to ensuring that young mothers are taken back to school to complete their education.
"We are making headway as regards the re-entry policy and we have co-operating partners who are assisting us in making it effective," he said.
It is vital that communities, especially those in rural areas, are sensitised in order for them to appreciate the benefits of the re-entry policy.
It is apparent that young mothers are suffering stigmatisation for being in school and the worst culprits who stigmatise these young mothers are teachers, it is alleged.
Teachers should be the ones to create an enabling environment for the young mothers to fit back into the education system.
But the case in Mporokoso is nothing to write home about as teachers are not appreciating the policy but are instead fighting against it by passing unpleasant remarks against the young mothers during lessons.
Mr Yambayamba said this is why the education board has taken an important stride to sensitise teachers first because they play a major role in making the policy more effective.
"It is on record that some teachers even reach an extent of telling off young mothers unprintables whenever they make a mistake during lessons," he said.
But sometimes the stigma also comes from fellow pupils especially boys who expect a young mother to be home nursing her child. With this kind of behaviour coming from teachers, it is anticipated that the education board in the district has more work to do to change the mindset of teachers who are supposed to be custodians of the policy.
And one resident said that parents should be sensitised too as they are in a habit of withholding young mothers from benefiting from the policy.
Mary Mwaba said some parents do not see the value of sending young mothers back to school as they consider it a sheer waste of money and resources.
Recently government announced that over 12,000 schoolgirls were re-admitted in school under the re-entry policy after falling pregnant.
And the DEBS in Mporokoso district managed to re-admit four girls in schools in the first quarter of the year, which should be commended as it is not easy to apply such a measure in rural areas where it is considered a waste of time.
It is hoped that more girls will now be re-admitted, which will help the Zambian government to achieve the Millennium Development Goals number two and three. Goal number two states that to achieve universal primary education by 2015, all children should complete a full course of primary schooling.
And goal number three is about eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and all levels by 2015 and ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education.
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