The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr. John Magufuli, in Restricted Talks, at the State House, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania July 10, 2016.

Tanzania’s president John Magufuli (pictured above alongside India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi) has said that teenage girls in primary schools who get pregnant should not be re-admitted back to school.

Magufuli argues that encouraging girls to go back to school will corrupt the morals of the rest of the students and encourage the vice, adding that they are other channels these girls can pursue to better their lives.

“There are many things that the girls can do after delivery; they can join VETA (Vocational Education Training Authority centers) and learn sewing or farming,” he said.

“We cannot educate parents! No one will be allowed back to school if they get pregnant while in both primary and secondary school, not under my tenure,” Magufuli said.

“Girls who get pregnant while in universities are allowed back but in primary schools, no! This is a bad culture we are encouraging and if we continue, it’s only a matter of time before we have a scenario were all students in class one are mothers,” Magufuli said.

Tanzania’s education policies do not have provisions for girls who drop out of schools due to early pregnancies to resume studies and the civil society has been mounting pressure on the government to formulate a legal framework that would allow schoolgirls resume studies after giving birth.

According to a global report on barriers to education in Tanzania, Thousands of girls in Tanzania leave school each year because due to pregnancy.