Over three years since the Tanzanian government announced the end of the school ban against pregnant students and adolescent mothers, significant challenges remain. The government has yet to implement the necessary legal and policy reforms to ensure schools and teachers uphold the right to education. These gaps continue to hinder the educational access and success of pregnant girls and young mothers, perpetuating stigma and placing them at heightened risk of child marriage and other human rights abuses. The African Union’s Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child has called on Tanzania to reform its Education Act to uphold the right to education for pregnant and parenting girls, to which the government announced that it would complete a revision of the Act by the end of 2025. The adoption of a national framework to protect pregnant girls and mothers’ right to education will be a necessary step in ending stigma, discrimination and exclusion in Tanzanian schools.
Compiled from: “Tanzania: Protect Right to Education in Pregnancy, Parenthood,” Human Rights Watch, Jan. 23, 2025.