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Gender summit to focus on pregnant pupils
06/06/2001 15:03 - (SA)
Cape Town - Discrimination against pupils because they are pregnant or
HIV-positive is one of the issues to be discussed at a national
gender summit in Johannesburg from August 5 to 8, MPs heard on
Wednesday.
The Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) was briefing the joint
monitoring committee on the improvement of quality of life and
status of women.
South Africa needed to take stock of how far it had come in
implementing the ideals of its Constitution, as well as the various
international conventions it had ratified on advancing and
promoting gender equality, a CGE briefing document said.
"The national gender summit therefore presents South Africa with an
opportunity to carve a revised national gender programme that would
ensure a rapid advancement of women and the effective attainment of gender equality."
Issues under the spotlight will include land reform; discrimination
against pupils; gender and HIV/Aids; gender, tradition and culture;
gender and religion; and gender and the economy.
The CGE said despite a host of laws to ensure the rights of pupils
were protected, Human Rights Watch reported that nearly two-thirds
of children denied the right to education were female.
The report also said that on a daily basis, in schools and
educational institutions nationwide, girls of every race and
economic class encountered sexual violence and harassment that
impeded their realisation of the right to education.
There had also been reports of teenage girls who experienced
different types of discrimination, and were denied the right to
education because they were pregnant.
"This is done by teachers who deny pregnant girls access or permission to carry on their education in their schools. The
reasons being that they will bring the school into disrepute," the
CGE said.
Those who went to school were often isolated and secluded from
other pupils.
"This seclusion and exclusion goes with being called names by
school authorities. In some schools, especially in rural areas,
girls who have children or are pregnant are put in one classroom
and labelled as 'promiscuous women'."
The CGE said pupils who were HIV positive were often denied the
right to education by teachers, school governing bodies and other
parents with children in the same school.
"Those who attend school often have to face up to an education
system that does not have human and material resources necessary to
offer support to them."
The summit - under the patronage of First Lady Zanele Mbeki -
will be preceded by provincial consultations. - Sapa
- SAPA
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