[ti:S. Africa School Keeps Pregnant Teens in Class]
[ar:Jerilyn Watson]
[al:Education Report]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.
[00:06.29]In some ways, the high school girls 
[00:09.34]at the Pretoria Hospital School seem like many other girls their age.
[00:15.52]But there is a major difference -- 
[00:18.20]most of them will become mothers by the end of this year.
[00:23.13]South African researchers say about 30 percent of girls in the country 
[00:29.46]become pregnant by the time they are 19 years old. 
[00:34.49]Only one-third of these girls stay in school 
[00:39.09]while they are pregnant or after their babies are born.
[00:43.22]The Pretoria Hospital School is the only school in South Africa 
[00:49.01]with a special division for pregnant girls. 
[00:52.88]One hundred pregnant girls are currently taking classes there. 
[00:58.11]Most were forced to leave traditional schools 
[01:01.55]because of peoples' treatment of them.
[01:04.44]"I thought they would judge me, 
[01:06.33]and that's why I left. When I was at grade 9, 
[01:10.57]there was a girl in grade 10 who got pregnant. 
[01:12.71]When we walked through the halls, girls would go like, 
[01:16.55]ˇ®Look, she was pregnant, she's pregnant!' 
[01:19.35]So that's why also I didn't want to stay, 
[01:22.49]cause I know what the people think -- and they judge easily."
[01:26.42]Sometimes South African schools expel pregnant girls, 
[01:31.72]although the action violates the law. 
[01:34.51]Many pregnant teenagers never finish their secondary education. 
[01:40.03]More than 30 percent of students 
[01:43.03]leave high school without finishing because of pregnancy.
[01:47.26]Dorothy came close to being in that group. 
[01:51.85]She was expelled from school when she got pregnant. 
[01:55.48]She spent months at home searching for another school 
[02:00.47]that would accept her. 
[02:01.61]She arrived at Pretoria Hospital School earlier this year 
[02:06.74]and praises the environment.
[02:09.47]"I began to feel welcome and not discriminated against, 
[02:14.06]and it was, it was lovely, 
[02:15.61]because we could all share about the same thing -- 
[02:18.45]no one was going to judge you. 
[02:20.54]They are all mothers, 
[02:22.00]we share the same pain, the same joys and, 
[02:24.75]yes, the teachers don't constantly tell us about 
[02:28.53]what a bad deed we do, we did, and they support us."
[02:31.97]School principal Rina Van Niekerk says 
[02:35.96]it is most important to raise every student 
[02:38.80]to the correct educational level and keep them there.
[02:42.79]"There's no cutoff date for them to enroll at our school. 
[02:46.96]So you will find that learners land up with you 
[02:50.79]in the 3rd term of the year. 
[02:52.74]But they're behind the work schedule that we are following. 
[02:57.08]So you need to get those girls on par with the rest of the girls. 
[03:01.41]Another challenge that we have is high absenteeism rates amongst the girls."
[03:07.09]She noted that the girls also often miss school 
[03:11.53]because of health problems linked to pregnancy.
[03:14.68]Pretoria Hospital School opened the program 
[03:18.56]for pregnant teenagers in the middle 1980s. 
[03:22.95]It remains the only such school in South Africa.
[03:26.83]That's the VOA Learning English Education Report. 
[03:32.07]I'm Jerilyn Watson.