KINGSTON, Jamaica —The Ministry of Education has submitted to Cabinet a new policy to ensure that girls expelled from school for pregnancy, can return and resume their education after the birth of their child, commencing in September.

A Ministry Paper tabled in the House of Representatives Wednesday (May 15) by Minister of Education, Ronald Thwaites, says that a policy paper, ‘Policy for the Mandatory Re-integration of all School-aged Mothers into the Formal School System’ has been submitted to the cabinet for approval.

“The policy is intended to allow for the continuation of the girls’ education during and after the birth of the child,” the Ministry Paper said, adding that it will support Jamaica’s fulfillment of international policy and development aims contained in the Millennium Development Goals, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

The issue was raised in Parliament in February, by Opposition Senator, Kamina Johnson Smith, when she sough to have the Education Act amended to change the regulations, requiring automatic expulsion of pregnant girls from the public schools system.

Senator Johnson Smith, a second-generation senator and daughter of former leader of Opposition business in the Senate, Anthony Johnson, made the appeal in a motion tabled in February in the Senate, in which she pointed out that the Regulations to the Education Act “compel” expulsion from school of adolescent girls who become pregnant, but do not mandate their readmission into the formal education system.

In response, the new policy proposed by the Ministry proposes that schools be advised that, “places temporarily vacated by a student during the period of pregnancy should be retained for that student/s return, following the birth of her child”.

The policy also provides some flexibility for students wishing to attend a different school after giving birth.

A strong preventative message, designed to reduce teenage births, will be a critical component of the policy, and prevention messages will be integrated into the school-based and national adolescent sexual and reproductive health and family programmes which target potential teenaged fathers.

The Ministry says that the amendment of the Education Act and Regulations to preclude educational institutions from filling the vacancy created by the student’s temporary absence will be a priority.