UPDATE: As of Dec 2019, a landmark decision from the Economic Community of West African States Court of Justice (ECOWAS) in Abuja, Nigeria, on Thursday ruled that Sierra Leone's ban on pregnant girls taking exams and attending school is unlawful. The court ordered the government of Sierra Leone to lift the ban immediately, act to address the increased number of teenage pregnancies, and work to fight discrimination against pregnant girls. Read more here.
There is still much work to be done to ensure that all girls have access to a quality education, in Sierra Leone and worldwide. This, however, is a tremendous victory and testament to the power of tireless local activists.
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Nothing should interfere with a girl’s right to her education.
Being a girl isn’t easy. Across the globe, more than 130 million girls are out of school—all for preventable reasons. Whether it’s a lack of transportation or forced early marriage, girls are often denied their right to education.
A girl who is pregnant knows this all too well. When she is pregnant, she stops being seen as a girl. She is seen as a mother and her rights as a girl all but disappear, regardless of her age or how high her exam results might have been.
Why does a girl’s reproductive status affect her educational future?
Globally, young mothers are kept from school either by law or custom. More than half of pregnant girls in the U.S. will find returning too complicated to navigate and will never graduate. In Tanzania, girls regularly undergo pregnancy tests at school and find themselves immediately expelled if the test returns positive. In Sierra Leone, girls who are pregnant are banned from school, amid worries that their presence will encourage other girls to fall pregnant
Once they have been forced out, there is no easy path for return.
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A one-minute recap of the issue:
A 60-second story of being banned from school: