Parents urged to protect girls from early pregnancies

Farirai Machivenyika, Senior Herald Reporter

Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Angeline Gata has called for a collaborative approach between the Government and various stakeholders to curb incidences of teenage pregnancies.

Deputy Minister Gata said this on Thursday during the Senate’s question and answer session.

She also said it was Government’s policy that girls that fall pregnant resume their education after giving birth.

“As a ministry, we have a policy that says should a girl child fall pregnant whilst in school, she should go back to school so that she continues with education. It is her right for her to go to school.

“We have what we call guidance and counselling and, in that subject, we are teaching children because as a Ministry and parents, we should work hand and glove to ensure that our children do not fall pregnant before they are ready to be mothers. We should work together with all stakeholders and the community to ensure that we raise our children well.

“As a ministry, we have a policy that leaves no child that has fallen pregnant behind. They should come back to the normal channel of learning together with her school mates.”

Deputy Minister Gata said that to deal with the stigma associated with falling pregnant whilst still in school, pupils that have given birth could transfer to a different school.

Asked whether it was possible to provide contraceptives to pupils, Deputy Minister Gata said such a decision required discussions with the Ministry of Health and Child Care to see if it was feasible to provide pupils with condoms and birth control pills.

A study carried out last year by Government and Unicef revealed that adolescent pregnancy prevalence was 23,7 percent (337 among the 1418 interviewed).

Among the 337 pregnant adolescences, 4 percent (20) had disabilities. The analysis of adolescent pregnancy prevalence showed that 0,9 percent of 10–14-year-olds (4/567) and 41,2 percent of 15–19-year-olds (333/851) were pregnant.

“The prevalence of pregnancy differed significantly between the two age groups, with older adolescents (15-19 years old) being 71,2 times more likely to be pregnant than very young adolescents (10–14-year-olds),” reads part of the statistics.