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'Pupil maternity leave is out'
27/11/2006 21:25 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Education Minister Naledi Pandor says her department has no plans to grant maternity leave to pupils.
Responding to weekend media reports, her spokesperson, Lunga Ngqengelele, said the department and Pandor had never considered proposing a compulsory maternity leave.
The Sunday Times reported that the government was considering a set of drastic proposals to accommodate pregnant schoolgirls - including compulsory maternity leave for six weeks.
The newspaper reported that the proposals, contained in a 19-page document that the department apparently had compiled, were aimed at managing and preventing the high number of teenage pregnancies.
Ngqengelele, however, said the document had been discarded and was no longer in the department's system.
"It was explained to the Sunday Times' reporter that the document was thrown away and therefore its contents were invalid.
Would confuse pupils, parents
"Someone gave it to the newspaper and we are concerned that the newspaper published it as a government policy, regardless".
Ngqengelele said the minister had labelled the newspaper report as deliberately misleading and designed to confuse pupils, teachers and parents.
He said the contents of the document were "just points taken down in meetings when certain issues are discussed" and were never even taken to the council of education ministers.
The matter of pupil pregnancies was a worrying issue that was under investigation by the department, he said.
He said that any response to it would be addressed within the context of the primary purpose of schools - to educate the children.
- SAPA
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