More African countries are letting pregnant girls stay at school

SARAH DID not know she was pregnant until teachers told her. In 2020 her state-run boarding school in Tanzania ordered tests for all the girls, who were returning after a three-month closure caused by covid-19. When her result arrived she was expelled and sent home. She was less than two years from graduating.Sarah is one of thousands of girls harmed each year by a law that compelled schools to kick out pupils who were accused of “an offence against morality”. These expulsions were celebrated by John Magufuli, the previous president, who declared: “After getting pregnant, you are done.” Magufuli died last year, perhaps of covid. The government of his successor, Samia Suluhu Hassan, relented in November, saying it would let teenage mums come back into class.