By Faith Nyasuguta
In a mega policy shift by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu’s administration, teen mothers who had been stopped from returning to school have been allowed back to class.
The shift comes four years after the late president John Magufuli Pombe ordered that pregnant schoolgirls be dismissed nd teen mothers be halted from returning to school, a directive that attracted widespread criticism both locally and internationally.
“As long as I am president no pregnant student will be allowed to return to school,” Magufuli is quoted to have said then.
Tanzania’s Education Minister Joyce Ndalichako confirmed that indeed the government will now allow the young mothers back to school.
“Primary and secondary school students once stopped from going school due to pregnancy will be given an opportunity to return to school in the formal system,” Prof Ndalichako revealed to media outlets in Dodoma on Wednesday.
According to the state, the decree will also apply to learners that were once dismissed from classes due to truancy and family problems.
Further, students who flopped in their examinations will have a chance to repeat the exams while those who sit for the exams a second time and excel will have an opportunity to get selected to government schools, Prof Ndalichako said.
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