Alarming teen pregnancies 'show we are failing our children’

Girls as young as 10 among 4,000 youngsters giving birth since start of year

According to the provincial health department, 94 girls aged between 10 and 14 had babies in the first seven months of the year, while 3,961 schoolgirls aged between 15 and 19 gave birth in the same period.
According to the provincial health department, 94 girls aged between 10 and 14 had babies in the first seven months of the year, while 3,961 schoolgirls aged between 15 and 19 gave birth in the same period.
Image: FILE

The Eastern Cape continues to battle a high prevalence of teenage pregnancies, with more than 4,000 girls aged between 10 and 19 giving birth since the start of the 2024 financial year in April.

According to the provincial health department, 94 girls aged between 10 and 14 had babies in the first seven months of the year, while 3,961 schoolgirls aged between 15 and 19 gave birth in the same period.

Such is the scourge of young pregnancies in the province that one rural school has 19 pregnant girls in class this year.

In the same school, at least 27 girls fell pregnant and gave birth in 2023, according to the provincial department of health.

A further 13 girls dropped out of school during the year, apparently because they were pregnant.

In 2023, then-health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth revealed that 17,617 girls had given birth in provincial hospitals between April 2022 and March 2023.

Dr Lesley Ann Foster, founder and executive director of Masimanyane Women’s Rights International, said the stats meant “we are failing the children of our province”.

“So many teen pregnancies mean our educational and prevention processes aren’t working and, most of all, there’s no accountability,” Foster said.

“Those children between 10 and 14 — there must be a man or boy arrested.

“They go off while a girl’s education is interrupted and it sets up or reinforces a cycle of poverty where children are denied proper care, education and upbringing that they need.

“It’s also the responsibility of the departments of social development and education.

“What are they doing about this and what monitoring systems are in place, because a lot of the pregnancies are from boys or teachers in the schools.”

In 2021, the new National Policy on the Prevention and Management of Learner Pregnancy was introduced.

This obliges schools to introduce measures to keep pregnant pupils in class and integrate young mothers into the schooling system after giving birth to ensure they do not lose out on an education.

Education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the department had “various programmes to teach and inspire learners how best to avoid pregnancy and sexual activity at a young age, as well as projects to enrich these learners and keep them at school”.

“The department also has peer support groups where schoolchildren can open up to each other and reach out where needed to get help without having awkward or uncomfortable interactions with teachers or adults,” Mtima said.

“We also recently launched a new programme to equip girls and boys with support mechanisms so that they don’t need to drop out of the system.

“Everything we do is geared towards keeping these learners in the education system.”

Zwelitsha Senior Secondary in Xwaleni village in Ntabankulu has attracted attention from the Eastern Cape government.

Newly appointed health MEC Ntandokazi Capa and a team of health officials visited the school on Wednesday.

Addressing the pupils, Capa begged girls to think about their future, saying the government’s monthly child grant was not enough to raise a child. 

“Take what we say seriously. You can have children later.

“Don’t you want your friends to host baby showers for you? We cannot host baby showers for teens who are children themselves.

“You also want to go to university. Now you are limiting your choices,” she said.

“The R510 [child grant payment] is nothing if you are going to raise a child.”

Capa said some parents encouraged their children to deliberately fall pregnant to access the child support grants.

“That is not an income. If a child gives birth young, they run the risk of birthing babies who suffer health complications or themselves suffer from illnesses as their bodies are not yet fully developed.”

She also urged boys to use condoms.

Zwelitsha principal Sonwabile Sogayise thanked Capa and her team, saying it was a major challenge to try to teach pregnant pupils as they were sometimes called upon to perform motherly duties at home.

He would not divulge the ages of the pregnant pupils.

Capa said a thorough investigation was needed to ascertain who was responsible for getting them pregnant.

School Governing Body chair Bongekile Comba said the school took pupils from almost seven villages in the area.

They were extremely worried about the high number of pregnant girls at the school.

“Maybe we need to see health officials coming here more often.

“They must provide things like condoms and contraceptives, but also aggressively do awareness campaigns that will teach [young people] about the dangers of teen pregnancy.

“Often it is parents who end up saddled with the burden of raising these babies.”

Asavuya Masinyana, president of the school’s Representative Council of Learners, said the issue of teen pregnancy affected the school’s results as many girls missed classes for long periods.

DispatchLIVE


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