Giving Compass' Take:

• Nellie Peyton explains how Sierra Leone is attempting to reduce high school dropout rates by making school free but will continue to ban visibly pregnant girls from attending mainstream schools.

• How does the separation of pregnant girls impact their studies? What cultural barriers exist to ensuring the success of girls? 

• Learn why girls are being left behind in education around the world. 

Pregnant schoolgirls in Sierra Leone will be banned from classes and exams despite sweeping new government measures to improve access to education for all, a state spokesman said on August 23rd.

The West African country introduced the ban on pregnant girls in 2015 after a rise in rape, abuse, and poverty during the deadly Ebola outbreak fuelled a spike in teenage pregnancies.

Activists say the law has increased shame and stigma for pregnant girls and set thousands back in their studies. Some hoped the change of government in April, when President Julius Maada Bio took office, would bring a change of policy.

The new government announced this week that it will make education free for all starting in September, hoping to reduce drop-out rates that are driven by girls. But it will still enforce the ban on pregnant students, education ministry spokesman Brima Turay told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Only 56% of Sierra Leonean girls aged 15 to 24 are literate, compared to 73% of boys in the same age range, according to the United Nations.

The previous government set up alternate, part-time learning centers for visibly pregnant girls, saying that allowing them to attend regular schools would undermine their ability to do well, expose them to ridicule and encourage others to get pregnant.

Those learning centers will re-open this fall with more funding, Turay said, but they will still have classes only three days a week so as not to tire the girls.

Read the full article about education in Sierra Leone by Nellie Peyton of the Thomson Reuters Foundation at Global Citizen.