By Mabinty M. Kamara
A 17 year old girl who was writing the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) on Tuesday, 26th August suddenly went in to labor pain whiles waiting to write her second examination of the day.
The girl who attends the Ansarul Islamic Secondary School in Freetown had just written the Oral exams for English Language and was waiting to write Health Science when she suddenly burst in to tears whiles in clear agony, eyewitnesses told Politico.
She had to be rushed to PCMH by female teachers in the school and later transferred to a clinic in Grafton where her family lives.
Principal of the school, Sallieu Y. Thoronka told Politico that the girl is one of two pupils in the school that are visibly pregnant whiles writing the exams.
Thoronka said the school has 850 candidates writing the exams all of which have attended regular classes since schools were partially reopened last month. He said even though the girl displayed love for schooling but the inconvenience and risk was too high.
"There is a policy that says we should allow pregnant girls in school so she was attending until she started the exam. I believe she endured the pain to even complete the first paper so we called on the female teachers for their interventions and they aided her to the PCMH for safe delivery," he said.
Thoronka said this is the first time she is experiencing this as a school administrator.
"Before now when a girl got pregnant she will have to wait until she puts to bed but because of the new Policy, we just need to abide and accept it. But as a co-educational school, it doesn't send a good signal for others," he said.
Politico was informed that the girl finally gave birth to a boy on Wednesday.
The incident has also sparked concerns for some, especially those who do business around the school. Ansarul is situated at Guard Street, which is home to Freetown’s biggest market, Dove Court.
A trader who saw the incident, Fatmata Kargbo told Politico that she wept out of shock when she saw the girl being rushed to the hospital to deliver a baby.
"The world is coming to an end. During our days, when even you when you get pregnant you will hide from people, talk less of going to school. But now they say it is human rights, so let’s see how she will continue the exam for this academic year," she said
She added: “if she had waited to be delivered of the baby, she would have prepared better for the exams and will complete the examination without hindrance.”
Some human right campaigners have been key in pushing the case for visibly pregnant girls to be allowed in to the mainstream schooling system. In 2010 the government banned pregnant girls from attending schools and campaigners sued the government in the regional ECOWAS court.
The banned was finally overturned this year and government yielded to calls to allow visibly pregnant girls to attend schools.
Madam Kargbo said that instead of allowing girls to school with pregnancy, advocates should do more to prevent early pregnancy.
The ban according to the press statement from the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education has been replaced with two new policies which focus on ‘Radical Inclusion’ and ‘Comprehensive safety of all children in the education system’.
“This is an eloquent testament to the government commitment to accessible and quality education (SDG4) and gender equality (SDG 5). We recognize that pregnant girl’s school attendance has become a divisive issue across legislative, educational and Civil Society spaces for the last ten years,” the statement from the ministry partly reads.
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