GOVERNMENT has decreed that pregnant schoolgirls be allowed
to attend class in their maternity attire as formal school wear might not be
compatible with their changed body stature.
Women Affairs minister Sithembiso Nyoni confirmed the new
directive during Parliament's question-and-answer session on Wednesday after
the issue was raised by Bulawayo Central MP Dorcas Sibanda (MDC Alliance).
"We are very concerned as a ministry - and Hon Sibanda
is right that during this lockdown period, a lot of girls fell pregnant. We are
working on the issue with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary
Education," Nyoni said.
"We have formed child support committees of women and
mothers that are supporting such girls and we are encouraging them to go back
to school. Indeed, some of them have uniforms that are no longer fitting
because they have now grown bigger because of pregnancy. We are talking to
schools so that they are allowed to go in their own clothes."
Nyoni urged communities, teachers and parents to provide
moral support to pregnant schoolgirls.
"We cannot do that without the children also being
made to understand that being pregnant sometimes may not be totally the girl's
fault. Some girls are cornered into pregnancy. So we need to continue to
support them to go to university, colleges and also to take up jobs because
having a child does not mean that you are now disabled or you cannot do much in
life," she said.
Sibanda also asked Nyoni to explain the efforts by her ministry
to ensure gender equality.
Nyoni said women in Zimbabwe constituted 52% of the
population, and therefore there were programmes to ensure more girls are
educated and enrolled at universities.
"So the ministry is taking a very important strong
position to ensure that girlchildren are empowered. We also have programmes
that empower women. I think gender equality is not possible as long as women
continue to be marginalised politically, economically and socially. We have got
different funds in our ministry and we are trying to disburse so that women are
economically empowered," she said.
Nyoni said Cabinet recently passed a policy on small and
medium enterprises development to specifically empower, women and the disabled.
Newsday
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