Better sex education programmes needed to address teenage pregnancy

Last week’s alarming announcement by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga that 90,037 schoolgirls aged 10 to 19 gave birth in the past year went by largely unnoticed, but it really shouldn’t have.

It should be, as she rightfully says, seen as a national crisis.

A teenage pregnancy has a massive negative impact on the lives of young women and their future.

What’s even more concerning is that more than 3,000 of these births were from girls aged 10 to 14 years.

Motshekga, when responding to a written inquiry from the Democratic Alliance’s Desiree van der Walt, said: “The department protects the rights of pupils to education, including continuation of schooling through accommodating reasonable absence due to pregnancy, and provision of continuous support post-delivery while facilitating earliest return to school.

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“Furthermore, through partners such as Global Fund, pupils are given early childhood development (ECD) vouchers so that they can leave their children in ECD centres while the pupil is continuing with schooling.”

But this really isn’t enough.

Awareness campaigns need to be prioritised and run all year round, while better sex education programmes need to be offered through life skills and life orientation subjects.

Clearly what we are doing is not working. Education needs to start at home.

If we fail to educate our children about sex and the subsequent consequences, we are failing them.