EDUCATION-CHILE:
No More Discrimination Against Pregnant Students

Gustavo González


SANTIAGO,  (IPS) - Ruth Muñoz told IPS she was kicked out of her private high school in the Chilean capital when she became pregnant at the age of 16.

Although she was able to complete her secondary education in a special school for teenage mothers created with United Nations support, that is not the norm for pregnant drop-outs in this South American country of 16 million, most of whom never make it back to school.

The roughly 10,000 pregnant teenage girls who leave high school in Chile every year will now be protected by a new clause in the law on education that prohibits any kind of discrimination against them.

The new clause will go into effect in April, Education Minister Sergio Bitar announced this week.

Teen pregnancy has been a source of conflict in the Chilean educational system due to the expulsion of pregnant girls from private high schools, mainly affiliated with the Catholic Church.

While serving as minister of education from 1990 to 1994, today's President Ricardo Lagos, a moderate socialist who heads the centre-left ruling coalition, made it impossible for public schools to expel pregnant girls. But the measure was not extended to private schools.

The lack of uniform, binding regulations applying to the entire educational system made it impossible to force private schools to reinstate pregnant students who had been expelled, even when the parents turned to the courts.

In one such case, the parents of Carolina Jara, 16, and Nataly Catalán, 15, filed a lawsuit invoking constitutional clauses that guarantee the right to education and prohibit discrimination.

The two girls had their registration cancelled by the Blas Cañas Commercial Institute in Santiago, which is linked to the Catholic University, because they were pregnant. The school authorities did not overturn the decision, despite the legal action taken by the parents.

But the new clause, announced on the occasion of International Women's Day on Mar. 8, will put an end to such incidents.

The reform of the education law sponsored by Bitar indicates that pregnant girls or young mothers cannot be turned away by schools when they attempt to register and cannot be expelled, even if their attendance rate is below 85 percent.

Private schools must also make it possible for young mothers to nurse their babies, and pregnant teenagers must be allowed to adapt their school uniforms as needed and cannot be excluded from graduation ceremonies or other public acts, according to the new rules.

''Our main task is sex education, to prevent teen pregnancy. But once we have that in place, our responsibility is to make it possible for the girls to continue studying,'' said the education minister.

Chile's educational system includes eight years of primary or basic education and four years of secondary education. According to surveys carried out in 2000, 10 percent of the students who drop out of secondary school do so because of pregnancy.

The latest census, from 2002, found that 12 percent of 15 to 19-year-old girls in Chile were mothers, and that seven of every 10 pregnant teenagers drop out of school.

Although a portion of the pregnant girls are expelled, others drop out voluntarily due to fear of social stigma and of being ostracized by their peers.

''Once my belly began to show, a lot of people started looking at me and making snide remarks. Instead of supporting you in your problem, they make it worse. If you get on the bus, they look at you funny when you pay the student fare,'' Ruth Muñoz told IPS.

Muñoz was able to continue her studies throughout her pregnancy in the 'Liceo Unidad Operativa de Educación y Capacitación', a high school for pregnant teenagers set up on the northside of Santiago as part of a project supported by the United Nations population fund (UNFPA).

Most students who drop out due to pregnancy never go back to school, because of the responsibilities of raising a child and the need to find a job, since so many of them become single mothers.

Carolina Opazo, who works behind the sales counter at a music store, told IPS that five years ago, when she was four months pregnant, she left her private high school in the last year of classes.

''I had to leave school to give birth to my son Javier. Once he was born, the farewell to my studies became final. The only solution would have been to have an abortion, but I never even considered that possibility,'' said Opazo, 21.

The new clause that will put an end to discrimination should also help reduce the number of abortions.

Although abortion is illegal in Chile in all cases, an estimated 200,000 clandestine abortions are practiced every year.