At St. Mark Lutheran High School, becoming pregnant is a violation of the school handbook. Five girls discovered this rule when they were expelled from the school after the principal learned of their pregnancies. In response to pleas for remaining in school until the end of the academic year, the principal said the expelled students could be readmitted after giving birth.
Liberia’s education law has remained unclear about the government’s stance on student pregnancy, allowing the school to make its own decisions on student expulsion. Other schools in Liberia face issues in regards to women and education. Girls in more traditional schools are taken out once they are of age in order to prepare for marriage. One school in Liberia expelled more than 100 girls at the same time, requiring the school to shut down.
Liberia is hoping to change the issues facing women in education, now led by the first democratically elected female president who said, “The education of girls will become a cornerstone of development in Liberia. Liberia is working to see a new country with a shared vision for girls’ education…to free humankind from poverty, discrimination, and disease.”
Liberia has made moves to increase girl student enrollment and has so far increased the population of girls in primary education by 50%. There’s hope that changes will continue to be made to help women in all areas of Liberian education.
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