The President of the Republic of Uganda has agreed to engage with the leadership of the Anglican Church of Uganda to resolve a stalemate which has seen thousands of expectant school girls locked out of the country’s church-founded schools since the beginning of the academic year.
There has been a sharp disagreement between the government and the Anglican Church of Uganda since January, over the fate of thousands of teenage mothers that conceived during the two-year Covid-19 lockdown.
The Anglican Church rejected the government’s idea of allowing expectant teenagers and teenage mothers to return to school. According to the church, the schools were not equipped with the necessary facilities to take care of the health challenges that emerge in the first three months of pregnancy.
“School owners have the challenge of providing facilities for expectant mothers,” said Dr Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda.
Kaziimba was worried of the possibility that the presence of expectant teenagers and mothers in schools would mislead girls into pre-marital sex.
He suggested thorough study of the government’s directive before implementation.
The government asserts that all students deserve access to classrooms even if they’re pregnant. Vice-President Jessica Alupo asked parents and teachers to amicably discuss the issue while teenage mothers were still in class.
However, the church has since stood its ground, and some head teachers have suspended expectant students, just like they used to, before the pandemic struck.
The resolve;
On Friday, Archbishop Kaziimba disclosed that the church and government had registered some progress in their effort to resolve the challenge of expectant learners.
“I am pleased to inform you that President Museveni has promised to engage us on how to absorb and cater for the affected girls without upsetting the schools’ systems,” Kaziimba said without mentioning how that would be successfully done without the necessary infrastructure in many of the schools in Uganda.
Kaziimba highlighted the need for the church to protect the innocent girls from being influenced by the “lost sheep”.
“In Lango sub-region alone in northern Uganda, 23,549 teenage girls were impregnated,” Kaziimba said. “When the provincial secretary lost his mother recently and we went for the burial, the diocesan bishop made an altar call for all the teenage girls who were pregnant to come for special prayers with the Archbishop. I had never seen such a big number of expectant girls. I had to pray for them.”
He also revealed that the Anglican Church of Uganda, through its Directorate of Education, has highlighted the significance of facilitating post COVID-19 psycho-social support to school communities to all the diocesan education secretaries.
“We have also sanctioned Mothers and Fathers Union members to work with the diocesan secretaries and the secretaries of education to offer Christian-based counseling to the schools,” he said.
Kaziimba invoked the authorities in Uganda to apprehend men who impregnated the girls, noting that some of the perpetrators were uncles and fathers of the victims.
“We continue to ask family heads not to conceal information regarding defilement and rape to avoid the temptation of forcing children into early marriages in exchange of money, goats and cows,” Kaziimba said.
He made the remarks at Ankrah Foundation in Mukono District, central Uganda, on Friday during a two-day conference for the Anglican heads and deputies of education institutions that ran on the theme, “Hope Beyond Affliction”.