A school that kicked out a grade 12 pupil because she was pregnant has been forced to allow her to write the matric exams after the intervention of public interest law centre, Section27.
But the pupil from Tabhane Secondary School in Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal, has been forced to sit her exams at an alternative venue after angry parents vowed on Friday to continue barring pupils who are pregnant from attending class.
The pupil, who is six months pregnant, and her pregnant classmate, Lindokuhle Khanyile, have been prevented from attending classes since September 13.
Section27 intervened after the Sunday Times, which reported on their predicament last weekend, advised Khanyile’s relative, Samuel Mayise, to approach the centre for assistance.
Khanyile, who is five months pregnant, was offered a place at Colenso Combined School on October 11.
On Wednesday, Section27 threatened to seek an urgent interdict to force the Tabhane Secondary School to allow Khanyile’s classmate to write her exams if the institution persisted in preventing her from doing so.
The basic education department’s chief director for legal services, advocate Shalili Misser, told Section27’s lawyer Zeenat Sujee on Thursday that KwaZulu-Natal’s head of education Nkosinathi Ngcobo had agreed to allow the pupil to write the exams.
This was after the department’s director-general, Mathanzima Mweli, discussed the matter with him on Wednesday night.
“The head of department has also undertaken to withdraw the school’s pregnancy policy with immediate effect. I trust that Section27 will no longer proceed with the urgent application as we have satisfied the conditions set by Section27,” Misser told Sujee.
Meanwhile, two parents who had been actively campaigning for the school to stop discriminating against pregnant pupils were ordered to leave Friday’s meeting by other parents.
She went to school on Friday but was not welcomed. Arrangements are being made for her to write at an alternative venue
— One of the parents
They said the meeting was “tense and heated”, adding: “The more than 100 parents took a stand that they will keep on excluding pregnant learners from the school.”
One of the parents said the pregnant pupil is “prepared and ready” to write the exams but was stressed as a result of Friday’s parents’ meeting.
“She went to school on Friday but was not welcomed. Arrangements are being made for her to write at an alternative venue.”
The pupil said in court documents drafted by Section27 that she had completed her matric syllabus and was prepared to write the exams.
The documents were not filed in court because of the 11th-hour undertaking by the KwaZulu-Natal education department that she would be allowed to write.
“Though I am pregnant, there is no justifiable reason why I should not be allowed to write my exam. If I am not allowed an opportunity to write this exam, it would hinder and delay my future prospects for completing my matric, obtaining suitable employment and pursuing a career should I wish to do so.”
She said she was provisionally accepted to study at university next year.
“I am determined to write this exam and to have a future to support my grandmother, sister and my unborn child. Those of us who have been expelled for being pregnant have faced a traumatic experience, were shamed, and treated as pariahs.”
Faranaaz Veriava, Section 27’s head of education, said they were pleased the department had intervened and “averted an urgent application”.
“The best interest of the girl learners have been prioritised. Our first applicant already has provisional acceptance at university and it would have been a tragedy if she was barred from writing her exam on Monday.”
She said the constitution and the department’s pregnancy policy was clear it was discriminatory to expel a female pupil for being pregnant.
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