‘Babies’ are having babies

Young girls, mere children themselves, are having babies.
Instead of focussing on exam papers and dream on what to become one day when they are grown up, these girls are changing nappies and breastfeeding.

Two schools in Emalahleni made the list.
According to the study done by the DA there were three pregnant girls in Sukumani Primary School in Ogies during 2013 and 2014.
At Makause Combined School there were 43 girls who fell pregnant during 2013 and 2014.
In the 2014 academic year, Mpumalanga had the second highest pregnancy rate in primary schools with 130 learners falling pregnant. The majority of these girls were 13 years old or under.

These girls are neither economically nor emotionally ready to deal with parental responsibilities, but it happened.
The majority of the schools that recorded a high number of pregnancies are lower quintile schools which are known to battle with infrastructure, discipline and educational challenges.
“This begs the question of what action plan the provincial Education MEC, Reginah Mhaule is undertaking to address this problem as the high learner pregnancy rate can’t be news to her and her office,” DA Mpumalanga Deputy Leader and Member of Parliament, Ms Sonja Boshoff asked.

Boshoff said the high number of primary school learners falling pregnant is exceptionally concerning as these children are unlikely to be able to look after their babies, let alone stay in school up to matric. It is also concerning because these pregnancies could be a sign of sexual crimes taking place either at home or at school.
“The DA will submit questions to MEC Mhaule asking for a detailed action plan on how she intends to discourage scholars from falling pregnant. We will also ask the MEC to explain whether or not teachers in Mpumalanga are vetted against the Child Protection Register and for the MEC to tell us how many teachers have been dismissed due to sexual crimes against learners,” DA Spokesperson for Education and Member of Parliament Anthony Benadie said.

Benadie said the time has come to identify and deal with the real cause of teenage pregnancy, rather than the department’s feeble attempt of addressing the consequences and symptoms thereof. More support must be provided to learners, especially those in lower quintile schools because not only are they burdened with socio-economic challenges but they bear the brunt of the education department’s failures.
Unwanted teenage pregnancy and orphans are an issue in the country where 30% of the population is aged younger than 15 years.
A draft White Paper for a Population Policy for South Africa cited the high incidence of unwanted teenage pregnancy as one of the country’s major population concerns.

The headmasters of the two schools in Emalahleni Local Municipality who had been mentioned cannot speak to the media as it is against the policy of the Department of Education.
Mr Gerald Sambo from the department said they are not disputing the numbers of pregnant learners.
WITBANK NEWS did a quick poll early on Tuesday, March 31 and the reaction was overwhelming.
Within an hour readers commented that 26 girls they are aware of are pregnant.

Melissa Mathe wrote: “It’s probably thirteen of them and of which they are still teenagers. This is really not a great thing because the percentage of teenage pregnancy in South Africa us increasing in an alarming rate and teenagers fall pregnant taking an advantage of that they’ll get grant money to support their babies without even contemplating that they still need to focus at school only. New born babies distract especially teen moms because they need lot of special attention and at the same time that particular teen mom still has to focus on her studies. Lot of young people especially teenage girls need to ruminate what ever they think of doing and ruminate the consequences of that certain thing too so that girls getting pregnant while still at school can at least be prevented.”.
”In each school maybe 18-25 girls are pregnant,” Mbali Mthimunye commented.
Yolanda Trollip said parents should be stricter.