From Ancient Greece - Through the ages - to that of late: Assessing South Africa's progress in the realisation of Plato's ideal state?

Due to various socio-economic factors, South Africa is faced with the growing problem of unwanted teenage pregnancies. According to the Department of Education's Code on the Measures for the Prevention and Management of Learner Pregnancies in Schools (2007), a school principal may suspend a pregnant pupil for up to two years - denying female learners the opportunity to obtain a proper education. Plato, a respected and influential philosopher of Ancient Greece, was of the opinion that both male and female, should receive the same education and be assigned to the same vital functions within society. Even after so many centuries, there is still not the equality Plato envisaged for male and female learners. This paper aims to prove that the expulsion of a pregnant learner from a school fails the test of constitutionality, a dilemma experienced in the South African school system today.