Poland's Education Minister: help pregnant teens at school

Polish Ministry of Education has requested information from schools on the situation of underage mothers and mothers-to-be. Specifically, the ministry wants to find out, what kind of help is provided to teenagers in a difficult situation, so they can continue their education - whether maternity leaves, convenient exam schedules and financial help are available for underage mothers.

Education Minister, Roman Giertych:

'If Polish schools are obliged to provide all the necessary help to a pregnant students, then we have to have the knowledge to know how to supervise this.'

Data collected from schools will serve as basis for a program assisting young women in difficult situation with their educational perspectives. The program is to ensure that pregnant teens do not face discrimination and are not pressured into having an abortion, but get the necessary help and support from school institutions.

Some students confirm that pregant schoolgirls are at times subjected to improper treatment:

'They are laughed at and singled out. That girl had a bad reputation afterwards and she was bullied.'

Mirosław Mikołajczyk is a teacher with over 15 years of experience at schools of different levels. Mikołajczyk has not personally witnessed discrimination directed against at pregnant girls at school, but still welcomes any effort aimed at supporting students in difficult position:

'I haven't met wvery many pregnant students in my career, just five or six maybe over the last 15 years. But, as I recall, they have always been approached by the teachers and by the headmaster of the school with greatest care, they were given opportunities to complete their examinations, they were offered help nad assistance by both the management of the school and the teaching staff. However, if the proposals coming from the ministry now are aimed at making this help more systematic, I would of course welcome this idea, since those girls actually need this help, instead of being pressured into abortion by some groups or organizations.'

Part of the ministerial project is to provide special funding for individual tutorials for girls, whose health situation makes it problematic for them to attend regular classes. Education Minister Roman Giertych again:

'During pregnancy there can be situations when a woman cannot participate in regular classes. It would be a good idea to provide funds to enable such a woman to continue her education.'

Ewa Ćwikła, headmaster of a junior high school in Łódź is of the opinion that it is hospitals and not schools which should be surveyed about the numbers of underage mothers:

'Schools will have some data on this, but hospitals would, I think, be a better place to look for information on children born to teenagers.'

Grażyna Olszewska from the Education Ministry responds:

'We are asking about the kind of help provided to pregnant students, and not just statistical data about the number of underage mothers.'

Following the Ministry of Education request for schools to provide information on pregnant teenagers, the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza attacked Education Minister Roman Giertych, accusing him of of interfering with the privacy of pregnant teenagers. Roman Giertych responded that he would sue Gazeta Wyborcza, as the articles in Gazeta Wyborcza were, as he put it, spreading lies. The Ministry never requested personal information on any student, but was just interested in whether pregnant teens receive the necessary help and support from school institutions.

'We should do all we can so that women in this situation are protected by the state,' Minister Giertych was quoted as saying.
Source: By Joanna Najfeld, polskieradio.pl