“You can’t write the exam or attend school,” gasp. “You’re pregnant!”

I can’t help it… I’m incensed, frustrated and totally flabbergasted. Ohhhhh, Sierra Leone!!!

The schools have been closed for almost a year now. The Ebola crisis has upset almost every facet of “normal” life around here. “Normal” wasn’t great to begin with… but… the closure of schools and the cancellations of regional and national exams has upset the progression of students – leaving primary school and entering secondary school… or writing their final secondary school exams.

The Basic Education Certificate Exam (BECE) is the national examination all students need to write to progress from Junior Secondary School (JSS) to Senior Secondary School (SSS). Students spend three years in JSS (most of the time) and at the close of JSS3 are supposed to write this BECE exam. Most of the students writing the BECE are between 16-18 years old. The BECE was the first test to be “postponed” in June of 2014. The West African School Certificate Exam (WASCE) is the regional test taken to finish secondary school… and maybe enter college or university. (many people don’t pass either exam…)

That’s all background information. What’s got me so riled up is the government policy to not allow girls who are “visibly pregnant” to write their BECE or the WASCE exams… or even attend schools when they reopen. Reopening schools is a heated topic of debate… and a potential source of much donor money. The government has set a date… then postponed and set another date… and it looks like it’s going to happen soon. (amidst the Ebola crisis, I might add)

The dates for the BECE exam have been slated for next week (April 1)… after a year of schools being closed, no classes, no preparations, etc. What a joke… to ask these kids to write a national exam after being idle for a year. There was supposed to be a week of prep-classes for the JSS3 students but from what I’ve heard those classes didn’t happen – teachers didn’t show up, there were no materials, no desks, no toilet facilities, no temperature checks, no safety precautions, etc. Sigh. And, parents are reluctant to send their children back to school for obvious reasons.

The government has appointed the former National Electoral Commissioner, Christiana Thorpe, to head the committee responsible for planning the re-opening of schools. She stated, as quoted in a local newspaper, “According to the Child Rights Act, the rights of the child has to be protected at all times. Therefore, it is in the interest of the pregnant children to stay home and deal with stress and avoid the examination.” She added, “girls should be girls and not mothers. It is high time we began to maintain morals”.

Any respect I had for this woman has been immediately dashed… What is she thinking??? I should try to remind Ms. Thorpe of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states in Article 2, “No child should be treated unfairly on any basis.” And then Article 4, “Governments have a responsibility to take all available measures to make sure children’s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled.”

Of course, I’ll have to remind the school reopening committee of this, from the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 28: (Right to education): All children have the right to a primary education, which should be free. Young people should be encouraged to reach the highest level of education of which they are capable.

So, a young girl gets pregnant… at some point during the Ebola crisis. Then, she’s punished further by being forced to drop out of school!!!! Sad… frustrating!! Under present conditions in this country… poverty and rape are rampant… this government wants to further punish these young women. I should add, there’s a saying around here, “the BECE belly”, which is used to describe the abhorrently high rate of pregnancy amongst girls who’re waiting to write the BECE exam or waiting to receive results, which often takes 4-6 months.

From the report, “Realities of Teenage Pregnancy in Sierra Leone”, published by KIT Publishers and disseminated on 8th December 2012 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

“Teenage pregnancies are common in Sierra Leone with 34% of adolescent girls (between 15-19 years old) having had at least one birth or being pregnant in 2008. Of these adolescent girls, 44% live in rural areas and 23% in urban areas. More than 50% of 19 year old girls (54.2%) have started childbearing and more than one in 10 girls aged 15 have started childbearing (11.3%).”

UNICEF Sierra Leone published a report on teenage pregnancies in 2010, which revealed that teenagers included in the research had a high rate of sexual activity. Reasons for sex were ‘love’, receiving money or gifts, peer pressure, payment for school-related expenses, food and protection. The perception of love was often associated with material gains.

The study also reported a high level of cases of sexual exploitation and abuse (58% in children 12-24 years). (UNICEF Sierra Leone 2010).

Goal (2010) undertook a study on teenage pregnancies in the Western Area district in Sierra Leone. They found some of the same factors contributing to early sexual debut as the UNICEF study: lack of support from parents, vulnerable situations, poverty, desiring what others have, peer pressure and power relations. Some adolescent girls engage in sexual relationships with men for their upkeep. Others have sex with men or boys to gain desired material goods (Goal Sierra Leone 2010).

The Minister of Education for the past seven years, Minkailu Bah, said, “government will not legalize teenage pregnancy by allowing pregnant girls to attend schools when they reopen”. I should add that his Ministry is responsible for the deplorable state of education in the country… and you can see why. He’s about 200 watts short of a bright bulb.

Someone should remind the Minister, the School Re-opening Committee and the President of Sierra Leone about the Sierra Leone Constitution 1991, Chapter 2: Educational objectives.

9. (1) The Government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal rights and adequate educational opportunities for all citizens at all levels by—

a. ensuring that every citizen is given the opportunity to be educated to the best of his ability, aptitude and inclination by providing educational facilities at all levels and aspects of education such as primary, secondary, vocational, technical, college and university;

b. safeguarding the rights of vulnerable groups, such as children, women and the disabled in security educational facilities; and

c. providing the necessary structures, finance and supportive facilities for education as and when practicable.

The Minister went on to say (was he kidding?), “According to the President’s Ebola proclamation, every pregnant girl should be arrested and charged to court because the Ebola protocol states that nobody should touch. So why should they touch?” Again… a shockingly stupid statement.

The Minister also said, “The WAEC report (which one, he didn’t mention) maintained that the girls (pregnant girls) will normally not have a sound mind to take the exam and often fall asleep in the exam hall, causing a major financial loss to the government.”

The Minister was also heard on Star Radio 103.5 saying, “exams are for school-going girls not pregnant women.”

I should add, the Minister recently admonished donors saying, “It is very unfair that they (donors) would want pregnant girls in schools. Why should they talk about that?” In the same breath, the Minister begged donors for $160 million to reopen schools, build bathroom facilities, provide water to schools, build desks, provide learning materials, buy thermometers, etc. I say… if donors are going to pay for all this stuff – they have the right to dictate some human rights policies and make sure schools and the Ministry, government and others follow basic rights principles. If schools and the Ministry had been operated properly over the past six years, there wouldn’t be the need to build toilets and wash facilities… but the Ministry, one of the most corrupt Ministries in the country, wants the cash and this Ebola crisis is a sure-fire way of attracting and stealing millions of dollars. (as illustrated in the Auditor General’s report May-Oct 2014)

As I’ve written about before, the illiteracy rate in Sierra Leone is anywhere from 65-80%. There are many reasons for this… apart from the extraordinarily bad education system. Drop outs, exam failures, pregnancies, sicknesses, poverty (inability to pay school fees), family pressures, early marriage, etc. are a few… and now, the government will add to the numbers of young women who will likely be forever burdened by a lack of basic education.

I’m curious about the Minister’s phrase, “visibly pregnant”. What exactly does that mean? A girl in her third trimester of pregnancy? A girl with a small tummy from sitting idle for a year? Does this mean that the Ministry will start administering pregnancy tests as a criteria for writing an exam or attending school? Good grief. And, who will decide if a girl looks “visibly pregnant”? It might just be another source of bribes for examiners… as if there isn’t enough corruption in the system.

Imagine this scene.

Isha is a mature, 18-year old student. She attended a local school prior to the Ebola outbreak and is supposed to write her BECE exam this year. She is called to her JS school to pick up her exam timetable, identification slip and photo – that will allow her into the exam hall. She’s called to the office of the Principal, a 50-ish woman in a flowing Africanna dress. Isha meets the Principal, always an authoritative figurehead, and two other female teachers waiting in the office. The Principal asks Isha to disrobe – remove her faded blue uniform down to her underclothes. One of the teachers starts to grope her stomach, “feeling for hardness and pregnancies”. The teacher squeezes Isha’s breasts – testing for “firmness” – and watches for any twinges of pain on Isha’s face. Then, Isha is handed a pregnancy test strip and told to urinate on the paper slip over a bucket in the corner of the office. Isha follows all the directions and the test reads – negative. She’s not pregnant… and is allowed to pick up her exam timetable and identification slip… and allowed to write the BECE exam.

This gruesome, blatant stab into the heart of human rights happened on Monday, March 30, 2015 at the Aberdeen Municipal School.

And, I’m left thinking about the boys and men who impregnated these girls… Will the boys be subjected to any penalties? How to tell? What about those sickening, “big men” (some of whom are undoubtedly politicians) who’ve impregnated these girls and young women? Will they be held to account? Will they be penalized? No… I doubt that very much.

Perhaps I should remind the Minister and other officials of the government of this… from the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 34 (Sexual exploitation): Governments should protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.

At the moment, Sierra Leone is undergoing a Constitutional Review and a Constitutional crisis. The President has sacked his Vice President… and some say that is a direct violation of the Constitution. Yet it happened… and the matter is now before the Supreme Court. BUT, there’s another Constitutional crisis – and this one has to do with the issue of girls’ education.