Zanzibar parliament endorses new education policy

Members of the House of Representatives of the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar have endorsed a new education policy intended to make major reforms, including allowing students who fall pregnant to resume their studies after giving birth. The 71-member parliament passed the reforms on Tuesday despite a walkout by members of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF). For more than 20 years, pregnant Zanzibari girls were forced to leave school permanently. Until the repeal of a law in 2005, they could even be imprisoned. "Unplanned and early pregnancies have been a drawback in the development of female students in our schools. Let us allow them to continue with school after giving birth and caring for their babies for some time," said Haroun Ali Suleiman, Zanzibar's minister of education. He said the new policy also included "having compulsory [education] up to form four instead of form two; the age of joining [primary school] standard one reduced from seven to six; and the age of a child to register for nursery school is now two years old instead of four." Opposition members of parliament who walked out of the session said the education policy was ill timed and poorly prepared. "The contents in the policy are good, but there has not been enough preparation - especially good consultations and involvement of the public," said CUF's Hamad Masoud. "We have observed that there is too much politics in the policy instead of seriousness in the education reforms. Zanzibar is still faced with many students in one class, lack of skilled teachers and poor quality of education. We should not rush in making reforms," he said. The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, which supported the reforms, makes up the majority in Zanzibar's parliament, while CUF holds 26 seats. Zanzibari authorities say the island has already met the second United Nations Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015.