By CGTN Africa
The Tanzania government has lifted a ban that kept pregnant students and adolescent mothers from attending school.
Speaking in Dodoma, Education Minister, Dr. Joyce Ndalichako said that the government will now allow all students who dropped out of school due to various reasons including pregnancy to return to school in a formal system after giving birth.
She made remarks while describing the achievements of the education ministry in the past 60 years of Tanganyika’s independence.
“Later today, I will issue a statement explaining how the students who dropped out of school due to pregnancy and other reasons will go back to school,” she said.
The policy that was first introduced in the 1960s, under the measure, schoolgirls were often subjected to mandatory pregnancy tests and run the risk of being arrested if pregnant.
In 2002, then president, John Magufuli then argued that girls would be too distracted to concentrate on their studies after they have had a child, and their presence would be a bad influence on other girls and beefed up the law with the ban.
