Tanzanian president bans pregnant teens back to school
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E-mail Xinhua, June 23, 2017
Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Thursday defied appeals by some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to send back to school pregnant girls after their delivery, saying that will never happen in his administration.
Addressing a rally in Bagamoyo district at the end of his three-day official visit to the Coast region, Magufuli scolded the NGOs that have been pushing the government to allow teen mothers back to school.
"These NGOs are being used by their foreign agents," said the president.
He said schoolgirls who were impregnated could engage in other undertakings after they had given birth, including joining the Vocational Education Training Authority centers where they can learn skills like sewing.
"They should not expect going back to school under my administration," Magufuli said, adding that if allowed back to school, they could encourage others to engage in unprotected sex.
Some NGOs have of late been pressuring the government to allow teen mothers back to school.
Some of them have urged the government to formulate a legal framework that would allow teenage mothers to resume studies after giving birth.
HakiElimu, a non-profit civil society organization, said recently that early pregnancy among schoolgirls was some of the factors behind schoolgirls' failure to finish their studies.
A study carried out by the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences revealed that pregnancy was one of the major reasons for school dropout among teenage girls in the East African nation.
In 2007, pregnancy accounted for 21.9 percent of secondary schools dropout, said the study, adding that Mtwara region in south of the country was one of the leading areas in Tanzania for teenage pregnancy.
The study showed that school dropout caused by pregnancy increased from 5.2 percent in 2003 to 21.9 percent in 2017.
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