Africa-Press – South-Africa. KwaZulu-Natal Education MEC Mbali Frazer has vowed to order an investigation into why a pregnant 16-year-old girl was kicked out of a Durban school. The principal allegedly told her to only return after she had given birth next year.
MPLs heard about the complaint during a legislature sitting on Thursday.
The desperate mother of the pupil approached the DA on 30 May, hoping the party could approach Frazer about her daughter’s immediate return to school, as the June exams loom.
Punishing pupils because they are pregnant is against the law in South Africa.
The Pinetown-based school’s management allegedly told their pregnant Grade 9 pupil, aged 16, that she needed to stay at home from 30 May, and informed her mother that she should not return to school until after she gives birth next year.
The mother wrote to the DA, whose education spokesperson Imran Keeka sponsored the motion in the legislature. According to the mother’s complaint, the principal had doubled down on 31 May in a phone call where he told the family that the pupil could only return to the school grounds to write her exam on the condition that a minder accompanied her.
Approached for comment, Frazer said she had only heard about the complaint in the legislature on 31 May.
“Definitely that can’t happen. If it is true that the incident took place, it cannot happen. I will investigate this matter and we will [revert],” she said.
The girl’s expulsion comes eight months after the Tabhane Secondary School in Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal, refused a matric pupil permission to write her exams because she was pregnant.
Keeka said:
He said the school was violating Section 5(1) of the SA Schools Act, which states that a “public school must admit learners and serve their educational requirements without unfairly discriminating in any way”, meaning that pregnant pupils, particularly those of compulsory school-going age, must be enrolled and be allowed to attend school.
Keeka also cited Section 9 (3), which says that the government should “not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth”.
“Teenage pregnancies are among the causes for massive school dropouts. They must not be used as a barrier to accessing education, let alone the reason for expulsion. It is a criminal act and has the potential to destroy young girls’ futures. The MEC must act,” he said.
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