The policy requires teenage mothers to take a year off schooling to care for their babies.

Thursday's challenge came in the form of an urgent application from the mother of an 18-year-old Windhoek High School student who was denied re-admission to the school this year because she had given birth to a baby in December.

Acting Judge John Manyarara reserved his judgement on Thursday, but he gave an undertaking that he would hand down his decision as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, young mother Utjiua Karuaihe, who wants to continue with her Grade 12 education at WHS this year, will have to wait a little longer before she gets clarity on her immediate future.

Her mother, Seuaa Karuaihe-Samupofu, is asking the court to order the Chairperson of the WHS school board and the Principal of WHS to permit her daughter to enrol for and attend her Grade 12 classes at WHS.

Karuaihe-Samupofu also wants the court to issue an interdict preventing the WHS school board and its Chairperson from refusing her daughter access to WHS to attend classes.

Also cited as respondents are the Minister of Basic Education, Sport and Culture and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Basic Education.

Their Ministry's policy, flowing from a Cabinet decision on the issue, that school-age mothers have to take a year off from their school education to care for their babies before they are allowed to return to school, was attacked as illegal by Karuaihe-Samupofu's lawyer, Esi Schimming-Chase, on Thursday.

She argued that it was denying Utjiua Karuaihe her constitutional right to education - which, she said, was a right that Karuaihe wanted to exercise even though she realised that she had made a mistake by falling pregnant while still at school.

Each day that she was forced to stay away from school was another day that she was denied the learning environment she so desperately wanted, Schimming-Chase told the court.

According to Government lawyer Philip Swanepoel, though, Karuaihe's right to education was not being denied, as she would be allowed to return to school after a year.

The Acting Permanent Secretary of Basic Education, Stanley Simataa, said in an affidavit that the policy on school pregnancies was aimed at balancing the right to an education with the right of a child to know and be cared for by its parents.

"The small child has the right to be taken care of by his/her parents and the time spent with her little baby is to the benefit of such baby and his/her future development," Simataa stated.

"It is incumbent on the parents of the young teenage scholar (...) to ensure that the young teenage mother indeed learns responsibility by spending quality time with and take care of her infant."

Karuaihe-Samupofu informed the court that she was willing and able to take care of her daughter's baby during school hours in order to enable Karuaihe to continue with her education.

Simataa's response to this was: "The Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture must be a role model for scholars and educate the youth and society and cannot teach the youth to shift responsibilities. The youth cannot be taught to simply transfer responsibility to grandparents. This phenomenon negatively contributes to the erosion of moral and parental obligations."

Swanepoel argued that Karuaihe had other options, besides attending WHS, to continue with her education this year.

He also told the court that internal remedies to try to get her access to WHS - specifically appealing to the Minister to be allowed to continue to go to school this year - had not been exhausted yet, with the effect that Karuaihe-Samupofu's urgent application to the court was premature.

But according to Schimming-Chase, making such an appeal would be an exercise in futility, because the Minister had already shown that his mind was made up on this sort of issue.

The school board and principal, by informing Karuaihe-Samupofu that they had to follow the Ministry's policy on the matter, had not exercised any discretion either.

In so doing, they had elevated the policy to the level of an act of Parliament, Schimming-Chase replied.

That had to be rejected, she said.

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