guest column:Sibusisiwe Marunda SUNDAY October 11 was International Day of the Girl Child and for me, it was an opportunity to celebrate the Education Amendment Act, which I consider to be one of the most responsive legislations in the history of this country. The Act, if effectively implemented, might give girls a second chance at realising their dreams and for some of them a chance to redeem their educational future post-COVID-19-induced lockdown-related pregnancies. For the benefit of those who missed the gazetting of the Act, it outlaws expelling girls for falling pregnant and corporal punishment. This article will focus on why it is necessary to have a law that allows girls who fall pregnant to stay in school. I will write a follow-up on why it is also important to outlaw violent punishment in schools. Divergent views Understandably, there were mixed reactions to this new addition to our statutes. Some expressed fear that without the fear of being expelled from school, there was going to be a lot of teenage pregnancies. Others felt without the cane, teachers were powerless in the classroom. All these reactions are normal and healthy considering where we are coming from. They create a duty upon the authorities to support communities to overcome their fears and embrace these positive changes. The media and other opinion leaders have a duty to inform, educate and influence their readership. In that context, I was shocked by a cartoon in one of the local daily newspapers of a range of school uniforms labelled according to the number of trimesters during pregnancy. This was in reference to the fact that girls will wear uniforms during pregnancy and this might involve changing uniform sizes as the pregnancy progresses. I found this not only in bad taste, but highly irresponsible. Background to the new law It is important for us to look at where, in coming up with this law, the legislature is coming from. For years, girls have been forced out of school because they have fallen pregnant, thereby losing the opportunity to realise their full potential. Government had a school re-entry policy which was little known and not very actively implemented. Statistics from the Primary and Secondary Education ministry tell us that 12% of the 57 500 school dropouts were due to pregnancies or early marriages in 2018. Ideally, girls should not be falling pregnant, they should be concentrating on their education. No parent wants his or her daughter to fall pregnant while still in school, including me. Unfortunately, it’s not an ideal world and at times things go wrong. School girls do indulge in sexual activities, which at times result in unplanned pregnancies. Drivers of teen pregnancies include poverty, where girls engage in transactional sex in order to access basics such as food, undergarments, sanitary wear and at times educational materials. Some girls will, as part of poor management of adolescent pressures, engage in sexual activity with undesirable consequences. There are some who are coerced into sex and this is confirmed by