Pretoria – The Free State Department of Education says it is pleased with the Constitutional Court judgement on school policies regarding pregnant learners.
The court on Wednesday ordered Free State schools to review pregnancy policies, which see pregnant learners being forced to leave school.
The department had raised concerns on these policies, which are in effect in some schools in the province, saying they infringed on the constitutional rights of pregnant learners to dignity and to receive basic education.
The department also said the policies subjected learners to unfair discrimination.
“In general, we are very happy about this judgement because the Constitutional Court has reaffirmed our view on those learner pregnancy policies we complained about.
“We celebrate and respect this judgement, and feel vindicated in the position we had on the constitutionality of those learner pregnancy policies, even though we are disappointed that the majority of the learned Justices did not agree with the argument we had presented in court on technical legal issues,” said departmental spokesperson Howard Ndaba.
In its judgement, the court had ordered that those policies of the schools involved must be reviewed in light of the Constitution and the South African Schools Act.
It further ordered that when the school governing bodies (SGBs) of the affected schools review these policies, they must engage with the HOD in accordance with the principle of cooperative governance.
The Constitutional Court also stated that whatever the SGBs and the department do, they should place the learners’ best interests as the starting point.
“We should be mindful that this was a very difficult matter, taking into account the length of this judgement, which involved the application of the law, learners’ best interests and their right to receive basic education that we as the department are obliged to provide,” Ndaba said. – SAnews.gov.za
