SCHOOL girls who fall pregnant will now be granted maternity leave of up to three months instead of an automatic expulsion, officials said.
The reforms to the disciplinary code were announced to head teachers by the Ministry of Education last week.
The changes also affect higher education students and nursing trainees.
The Education Ministry’s circular P35 also says where a boy pupil is responsible for the pregnancy, he too must be granted paternity leave.
Calvin Edwin Mazula, Harare’s education director said: “Male students should not get the unfair advantage of continuing with their studies while the mothers of their children are sitting at home.
"The boy should also feel the pain of temporarily halting school and this should be deterrent to would-be offenders.”
The changes have been welcomed by educationists and child protection activists.
The award-winning novelist Petina Gappah hailed the changes as “progressive”.
She wrote on Facebook: “It’s excellent news. As we all know, teens have sex, and sometimes the girl falls pregnant. It never made sense that in Zimbabwe, the girl who fell pregnant was expelled while the boy who made her pregnant remained in school to finish his education.
“Here again, the government of Zim babwe shows that, where it chooses to be, it can be progressive. More of the same please!”
Educationist Lazarus Kundeni said: “I think punishment has to be corrective, but when a child is totally expelled from school, in my view, that becomes punitive.”
Chipo Chirimuuta, a lecturer of African Languages and Culture at the Midlands State University who researched teenage pregnancies in 2006 said the move was long overdue.
“Female students have their own needs that must be accommodated, which, if not acknowledged at policy formulation level, might not be addressed at policy implementation level,” she says.
“Teenage pregnancy is not a disciplinary issue; it is part and parcel of the challenges that accompany maturation …
“This is the time in the human cycle of life when hormonal changes are taking place, and with very limited support systems to guide youths through the challenges."