As a child, Modesta dreamt of becoming a lawyer and protecting the rights of women and children. Today she holds a Bachelor of Law Honours degree and runs her own capacity building, recruitment, training and research company. As she strongly believes in the potential of her country, her company is geared towards developing Tanzania as an economic power, driven by confident, professional, entrepreneurial, patriotic and altruistic individuals. But given the obstacles and inequalities they face, many of these dreams will remain just that, dreams, even though it is well known that education is a powerful lever to reverse these inequalities and to turn dreams and hopes into reality.
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Tanzanian officials have often argued that they do not have a policy that expressly says pregnant or married girls cannot go to school. Tanzanian President John Magufuli has vigorously supported a ban on pregnant students and vowed to uphold it throughout his term. Home Affairs Minister Mwigilu Nchemba threatened to rescind the registration of groups advocating for the education of teenage mothers. The authorities have also arrested some schoolgirls for becoming pregnant and harassed their families. Such arguments are not grounded in any authoritative studies. Tanzanian officials routinely subject girls to forced pregnancy testing as a disciplinary measure and permanently expel those who are pregnant. While a lot of public commentary has focused on secondary school girls, according to this policy, primary school girls who are pregnant or married also get expelled, and have no real alternatives to return to formal schooling.
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DAR ES SALAAM, June 22 Reuters - Secondary school drop-outs in Tanzania will be offered the opportunity to resume studies in alternative colleges, the government said on Tuesday, part of a shift away from a disputed policy under which pregnant girls were expelled from school. Such expulsions had increased under the tenure of maverick President John Magufuli, who died in March, according to rights groups who accused his government of discriminating against female students based on a policy that dated back to New President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was Magufuli's deputy, has acted quickly to reverse some of his most controversial policies including his dismissal of the COVID pandemic as a supposed hoax and conspiracy. Last month, she stressed the importance of Tanzanians wearing face masks against the virus. Regarding the new schools policy, Akwilapo said the education ministry wants all 54 of its FDC colleges to be able by January next year to provide secondary education to former school dropouts keen to resume their studies. Around 5, girls drop out of school per year in Tanzania due to pregnancy, according to the World Bank. Asked when pregnant girls who were forced to drop out will be allowed to return to mainstream schools, Akwilapo said a decision will be announced after an analysis is completed. He did not say how long the analysis would take.
Teenage girls in Tanzania are routinely excluded from school if they become pregnant and are prevented from returning to complete their education. Yet a recent case in the Rukwa Region involving over pregnant girls dropping out of school in six months, shows even this is not the worst outcome girls may face. In the case from the Ruwka Region in West Tanzania, a local councillor told reporters that if men impregnating underage girls were going to be arrested and prosecuted, the same approach should be applied to the girls who had become pregnant. This story is not new.
