A school has been told to readmit a grade 12 learner they booted out after she fell pregnant.
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 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 directorgeneral, 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.
source: https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/news/2022-10-30-pregnant-pupil-wins-battle-to-write-exams/
Sunday Times Page 6
Content created and supplied by: LeahWrites (via Opera
News )
