Tanzania 's government has not adopted adequate legal and policy measures needed to protect pregnant girls and adolescent mothers' right to education and reverse decades of systemic exclusion in schools, Human Rights Watch said today on the International Day of Education. Tanzanian girls remain at high risk of stigma and discrimination in schools if they are pregnant or are mothers.
More than three years since the Tanzanian government announced the end of a discriminatory school ban against pregnant students and adolescent mothers, it has not undertaken key legal and policy reforms needed to clarify obligations of all schools, education officials, and teachers to protect and promote the right to education of students who are pregnant or parenting. Nor has it provided adequate support and accommodations needed for pregnant girls or adolescent mothers to stay in school.
"Tanzania's revocation of a profoundly discriminatory and harmful school ban against pregnant girls and adolescent mothers in 2021 signaled an important change of course and a commitment to redress years of discrimination, stigma, and abusive practices against girls," said Elin Martínez, senior children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Tanzania needs to end its continued delays in adopting the needed reforms to protect girls' right to education and ensure that more adolescent girls stay in school."
In November 2021, the Tanzanian government announced Education Circular No. 2 of 2021, which outlined how students who dropped out of school for various reasons, including pregnancy, could return to school. Through the circular, the government revoked its discriminatory school ban against pregnant girls and adolescent mothers. In February 2022, Tanzania's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology published "Guidelines for re-entry of students who dropped out of primary and secondary education for various reasons."
However, both measures include provisions that contravene Tanzania's human rights obligations and that should be urgently addressed, Human Rights Watch said. In particular, the 2022 guidelines include administrative barriers for girls to re-enroll after pregnancy and stipulate a period of up to two years for students who are mothers to re-enter school. They also prescribe that girls who become pregnant a second time will no longer be readmitted for formal education.
In 2022, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, an independent expert body that oversees African Union member states' compliance with the African child rights treaty, found that Tanzania had violated girls' right to education, including by discriminating against girls on the basis of pregnancy or parenthood. The committee issued its findings in response to a case filed by the Legal and Human Rights Centre and Center for Reproductive Rights in June 2019 on behalf of Tanzanian girls.
The government has repeatedly delayed adopting the African Committee's recommendations. They include the revision of Tanzania's Education Act to outline concrete steps to prevent the expulsion of pregnant and married girls from schools, state the immediate prohibition of mandatory pregnancy testing, and remove wedlock as grounds for expulsion in its Education (Expulsion and Exclusion of Pupils from Schools) Regulations No. 295 of 2002.
Research by numerous organizations, including Human Rights Watch, shows that a mandatory period of leave imposed on adolescent mothers, especially for long periods, runs counter to efforts to help girls return to school and remain there. The longer adolescent girls spend out of school, the more likely they are to permanently drop out. Once out of school, adolescent mothers are at high risk of child marriage and other human rights abuses.
Civil society reports show that girls continue to face stigma in Tanzania when they do return to school, and are still discouraged and marginalized by some heads of schools and teachers across various provinces. School officials are not sufficiently aware of current ministerial instructions to support girls' re-entry, or use wide discretion when applying the guidelines, resulting in girls not re-enrolling.
In October 2024, Tanzanian government officials notified the African Committee that the government would complete review of its Education Act by the end of 2025. The African Committee repeated its calls for Tanzania to ensure that pregnant, parenting, and married girls have the right to re-entry without restrictions or delays, remove the two-year limitation to re-enter, and address expulsion grounds tied to wedlock. The committee also recommended Tanzania ensure a clear, binding, and explicit prohibition on mandatory pregnancy testing in schools and health facilities.
The government should urgently adopt a national policy that provides school officials with human rights-compliant guidelines on managing adolescent pregnancies in schools, and outline a range of measures to support adolescent mothers' return to school.
The government should also expedite the reform of its Education Act, including by inserting positive protections to uphold the right to education for pregnant and parenting learners, removing problematic provisions that permit the expulsion of girls on the basis of wedlock, and adding an explicit prohibition of compulsory pregnancy testing of students. These measures would bring Tanzania's practice and legal and policy frameworks in line with that of many other African countries, Human Rights Watch said.
"Tens of thousands of girls have experienced discrimination, stigma, and exclusion in Tanzania's schools," Martínez said. "The government should urgently adopt a national policy that outlines school obligations to protect pregnant girls and adolescent mothers' right to be in school, amend the Education Act to ensure their right to education, and prohibit all practices that exclude and discriminate against girls."
