15 Dec 2022

Some primary  schools have reported pregnancies of children from as low as Standard Four.

Answering a question in Parliament, Assistant minister of Education and Skills Development Ms Naniki Makwinja said children were at risk of becoming pregnant from age of sexual maturity, which could be as young as 10 years old.

“In 2021, a total of 13 children dropped out of primary school due to pregnancy.

This is from a total of 1 085 learners who dropped from primary education nationwide while at secondary level, 366 children dropped out of secondary schools due to pregnancy from a total of 2 566 learners who dropped from secondary school nationwide,” she said.

She said the central region, with the largest population of leaners, accounted for the highest percentage of drop-outs for both pregnancy and other reasons with 1 219 leaners.

Ms Makwinja noted that Ghanzi was the worst region for learner retention at 325 or 3.5 per cent drop-outs of their enrolment followed by Kgalagadi at 1.6 per cent and North West region at 1.3 per cent.

As interventions, the assistant minister explained that the ministry was addressing the problem of teenage pregnancy through the Life Skills Programme under the Department of Guidance and Counselling.

Other interventions include Dreams - Life Skills programme, Circles of Support, an Early Unintended Pregnancy Campaign, and the Comprehensive Sexuality Education for which so far 2 682 teachers have been trained and it is being rolled out to schools.

She said the ministry was also training master trainers to empower parents and learners on parent-child communication and so far 3 065 parents had been trained.

Ms Makwinja was responding to a question from Maun East MP, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile on the prevalence rate of teenage pregnancy and school dropouts in primary and secondary schools including the lowest age of a reported case of teenage pregnancy.

He also wanted to know what the ministry was doing to address the challenge. ENDS