Pregnant Teens Denied Access to Education

Posted on 05. Oct, 2009 by admin in Health, Politics

By Kimberley McLeod

There’s an epidemic that’s spreading in schools all over Antigua among teenage girls. Symptoms include a delayed or missed menstrual cycle, nausea, vomiting, food cravings, an enlarged abdomen, and are highly contagious.

The Antiguan government has found a viable solution to stop the spread of this infectious disease better known to some as teenage pregnancy: a proposed amendment to the Education Act that prohibits visibly pregnant teen girls from attending school.

Regardless of what the law has stated, traditionally, schools in most Caribbean countries ask female students to leave if they become pregnant. Some Caribbean islands give teenage girls the option of returning to school after giving birth. In St. Kitts, however, they are allowed to continue their education while pregnant.

If passed in Antigua, the new amendment will read, “….a noticeably pregnant student is not permitted to attend a public school or an assisted private school or to wear a school uniform in public until the end of the pregnancy.”

The Antigua Sun notes that Section 14 of the Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda plainly defines discrimination as “affording different treatment to different individuals attributable wholly or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, place of origin, political opinions or affiliations, colour, creed, or sex whereby persons of one such description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which individuals of another such description are not made subject or are accorded privileges or advantages that are not accorded to persons of another such description.”

Those in opposition to the amendment say that it discriminates on the basis of one’s sex. The legislation subjects female students in a way that male students cannot be subjected. The boys (or men) that impregnated these girls (in many cases, as a result of nonconsensual sex) are not held accountable and certainly cannot physically display that they are expectant fathers. They are not required to leave school or forbidden to wear the uniform. They are not shamed for choosing to continue with their education – a decision which will only make teen mothers better equipped to find employment and care for their children.

Supporters of the organization called Together We Must: The Women’s Manifesto of Antigua & Barbuda expressed their disproval of the legislation in an open letter to Dr. Jacqui Quinn-Leandro, the Minister of Education and the Minister of Gender Affairs, citing why the bill is unconstitutional.

According to Article 10 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education.”

Similarly, Article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) says, “States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.”

Finally, Article 3 of the CRC declares, “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”

While Dr. Quinn-Leandro has supported both the CEDAW and the CRC in the past, she still endorses the proposed amendment to the Education Act.

Studies show that teen mothers are more likely to drop out of school and live in poverty. If Parliament passes the amendment, it will put these girls and their children more at risk. Instead of barring visibly pregnant teenage girls from the classroom, the objective should be to take preventive measures, such as sex education and providing contraceptives to ensure that fewer teens are becoming parents and more are becoming graduates.

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