A School To Call Their Own

It’s a place where pregnant learners feel accepted, supported and able to carry on with their studies – but Hospital School Pretoria is facing closure

- Shanaaz Prince

THEY laugh as they huddle around one another, happily chatting before the school bell rings to signal the start of their day.

Dressed in light-blue uniforms, they look just like regular high school learners. Yet upon closer inspection their baby bumps are obvious underneath their clothes.

Most of the 75 girls who attend Hospital School Pretoria are pregnant. Those who aren’t have returned to this special school after giving birth.

“A lot of girls are too shy to go to a normal school so they drop out,” explains Hanneli Lee, who teaches computer studies at the school. “We want to prevent that. We get our kids to pass matric and do well so that they can look after their babies.”

Hanneli and the rest of the staff are worried about the future of the girls and their unborn children because the school – the only one of its kind in the country – faces closure.

It’s a frightening thought for matric pupil Lebogang Thwala* (18). She enrolled at the school after teachers at her former school started treating her differently.

“I knew about the school but I didn’t think I’d end up here. After I fell pregnant, teachers from my old school decided I should come here because the bullying wasn’t going to be easy for me and even the teachers weren’t nice anymore after they found out,” she says.

Her classmate, Maryke Swart* (18), says she heard about the school at a counselling session at her previous school. “There are so many girls who’ve dropped out of school because they were pregnant. I didn’t want to be one of them. I’ve been here since my second trimester.”

She’s grateful to the school for offering her a safe and supportive environment where she can complete her education. “It’s so much better here – the teachers are more helpful and I can actually do more work.