There are 42,000 girls aged 13 to 18 who do not attend school because they are pregnant. (GHS 2008)
This week’s theme: Back to school
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This figure is similar to the USA, which had 746,820 total pregnancies in 2002 for women aged 15-19 (source here page 6). Also the USA population is about 6 times larger than ours.
Last year’s equivalent fact (http://www.eighty20.co.za/blog/2009/01/child-and-child/) said there were 35,000 girls aged 13 to 18 who do not attend school because they are pregnant. Things seem to be getting much worse.
A woman’s body is at it’s most fertile when she is in her teens. And the risks of something going horribly wrong with the mother or child during pregnancy and during birth are at their lowest. Yet when teenagers fall pregnant, everyone gets upset. It’s what nature wants.
I unfortunately do not have any children of my own.
Without procreation the human species would die out.
It is important therefore that people do have children.
Some believe that there are already too many people on Earth.
Maybe we are missing the whole point.
Why do I say this?
Because:
“Whilst the earth is the cradle of mankind(I include both genders, male and female), mankind cannot live in the cradle forever, his (and her) destiny lies amongst the stars.”
Only one comment that this state of affairs justifies is: our education system and its teaching fraternity sucks. They obviously possess little, if any, moral substance.
A well-researched study by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) published in 2009 (http://www.pmg.org.za/files/docs/090901report.pdf)notes that “rates of teenage pregnancy remain unacceptably high”, however it also states:
“What the analysis of the trends in fertility show is that the moral panic about rising teenage pregnancy in SA is unfounded. It is one area in which policy instruments related to information dissemination (primarily related to HIV), family planning services, and expanding access to education, have been effective.”
A problem noted in the study is the low use of abortion by young girls and women with unwanted pregnancies, mainly due to the stigma associated with it.
Contrary to the common view that teenage pregnancy is linked to moral decay the study found that a range of factors influence teenage pregnancy including:
- dropping out of school
- poverty
- absence of parents
- stigma about adolescent sexuality
- access to judgment-free healthcare services
- when girls are involved in sexual relationships with power imbalances
- when young girls turn to sex in order to support themselves to meet basic material needs
Much advocacy work is also required to ensure that the gatekeepers of education – principals, teachers and fellow learners, buy into the policy to reduce the stigma that often turns young mothers away from the doors of learning.
For more detail on the government’s approach to pregnant learners, click
http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/measures-pregnancy.pdf
For a recent report in Parliament on this issue click
http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20090901-department-basic-education-teenage-pregnancy-sa-specific-focus-school