Teen mum goes back to school

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

A VICTORIA Falls teenager, who wrote part of the Zimsec Grade Seven general examinations on a hospital bed soon after giving birth last year, has enrolled for Form 1 as she is determined to continue schooling.

This is in line with Government policy in terms of the Child Protection Act, stating that minors, especially girls whose schooling is disturbed when they fall pregnant should be allowed to continue with their education at public schools in the spirit of leaving no one behind.

Child hands protecting clay people on white table – community concept

The girl, name withheld, was 13 when she gave birth at Victoria Falls Hospital in October last year.

She was heavily pregnant when she sat for her first paper before going into labour that same afternoon

The teen sat for four papers in the maternity ward, ignoring labour pains. The under-age mother met an 18-year-old assistant builder in January last year who was working at a house next door and the two started dating.

She only discovered she was pregnant in August when her maternal aunt noticed an abnormal change in her body.

Sadly, the man who also stays in Mkhosana was not arrested for having sex with a minor in terms of statutory laws while the girl’s future has been disturbed. He relocated to Botswana after the birth of the baby, the teen mother said today in the morning when a news crew visited her at her parents’ house. “I am not stopping going to school. I got a place (school name supplied) and I am going in the afternoon session,” said the teen mum.

She was all smiles when she spoke about her dream of continuing with school.

The girl said she wants to be a nurse and the baby will not stop her from going to school.

The baby is nearly three months old and the girl’s mother and elder sister will take care of her while she is in school. Her case is one of the many cases of teenage pregnancies recorded in the past few years with the case of a nine-year-old Tsholotsho girl who gave birth through the caesarean section in November 2022 being topical. — @ncubeleon.