By Ezekiel Nabieu
Next to the ongoing Nation Constitutional issue, the issue of pregnant girls being allowed to sit to examinations has been the more controversial issue in the country. While the United Nations is for allowing the girls to take the examinations the government of Sierra Leone has been implacably opposed to their doing so. As a result the pregnant girls were not allowed to sit to the recent school examinations. Each position has its arguments that it deems convincing. These could be examined in perspective. It is therefore necessary to have a look at the antecedents that lead to the syndrome, if only to prevent future recurrences.
Parents & Guardians
The responsibility for the upbringing of students is a shared one between the parents and the guardians on the one hand and teachers on the other hand. Judging by the time spent by students at home and at school however it is the parents and guardians who take the greater responsibility. And during the past extended stay – at – home the problem was further exacerbated.
All too often in our local setting especially because of the high percentage of illiteracy of parents and guardians in our society they regard their siblings and wards as nearly the sole responsibility of the teachers and therefore assume a Laissez – faire attitude.
Rather they should get involved. Teachers should be regarded as allies and not final solutions to the student’s problems. Even if illiterate parents and guardians should talk to them about the child’s goals and challenges and thereby devise a way forward. The more involved they are in their child’s training, both secular and spiritual, the better for the child’s success.
Some children who could be getting better grades simply do not know how to study – or do not have the appropriate environment for it. A good study area with appropriate furniture with sufficient light is a step in the right direction. You can help your child make advancement by providing training and right setting for pondering over new thoughts and ideas. Sad to say because some parents and guardians are themselves delinquent they cannot bring up children who are disciplined. It is like cleaning up an object with dirty hands.
Premarital sex
Whatever happened to Religious and Moral Education (R.M.E) these days in contra – distinction from mere Religious Knowledge in the days of old? What are the new Guidance Counselors doing? It is an irony that in the days when Moral Education was not stressed morals were far better than they are these days in the spite of their charade of family planning schemes that were not available in the past are all over place these days.
Incidentally food and sex are two of the most violent instincts in human beings. But sex is a divine gift. It enables us humans to procreate and it also helps a husband and wife to bond physically and emotionally in a pleasurable way. But sex outside marriage is fornication that has no genuine commitment. This syndrome was heightened during the past involuntary Ebola holiday. The much – vaunted Religious and Moral Education has proven to be cosmetic.
PARTING OF THE WAYS
On the past issue of banning pregnant school girls from attending school and from sitting school examinations the United Nations and the government of Sierra Leone have disagreed. There is a parting of ways.
A statement from the United Nations on the ban stated inter alia “Article 4.1 of Sierra Leone’s Education Act (2004) includes the principal of non – discrimination in accessing education.” Furthermore the statement said under Article 2.2 of the covenant Sierra Leone undertakes to guarantee the right to education without discrimination of any kind, including on the basis of sex.
It could be seen that the inference is that by banning the girls from attending classes or exams government is being accused of discrimination. The divergence in interpretation and implementation is obviously on cultural grounds. In this regard Thomas Carlyle wrote Let each become all that he was created capable of being… casting off all noxious at length in his own shape and stature be these what they may. Ipse dixit.
If we transpose Sierra Leone for the word “he” in that quotation we cannot agree with Thomas Carlyle more that what the government of Sierra Leone has done is to cast of NOXIOUS ADHESIONS and to be itself. Indeed it is necessary to imbibe what is delectable in other cultures and to eschew the unpleasant.
Pregnant girls going to school in other countries does not mean that they should be allowed to do so in Sierra Leone. Non sequitur. The implementation of domesticated covenants cannot be the same in various countries. The United Nations stance on pregnant school girls’ attendance is in sync with the highly trumpeted Child Rights without an emphasis on Child Obligations that has been a bugbear to many parents and guardians. The attitude of our girls would be to regard the status of pregnancy as a right and not a wrong while girls in developed would regard it as an aberration to be abhorred.
Just where the discrimination exists by United Nations reckoning is not quite clear. After all, boys and girls in Sierra Leone are given equal access to education without discrimination. If the United Nations and the Female Lawyers can convince us that driving a boy or girl from school for not wearing uniform is discrimination I am done. Pregnant girls should stay at home.
© Politico 21/04/15
