YWCA condemns teachers dating pupils

21/04/2014

Many children live a long way from school and prefer to rent accommodation nearby. Grade 12 pupil Dorcas, 17, stopped attending the Mabumba High day school, about 20km east of provincial capital Mansa, after becoming pregnant. She said: “We were staying the three of us [girls], then we started sharing the house with three guys and that is how we paired ourselves. We just wanted some form of emotional support; life is really tough out there. So, the whole of last year we were living together with the guys and would have [unprotected] sex almost every night but everything was OK.” ~ Dorcas. Photo Credit - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

The Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) in Kaoma district of Western province has expressed concern over the number of defilement cases being recorded in the education sector as a result of teachers dating pupils.

Kaoma District YWCA Project Coordinator Sitali Mukatimui said her organization is dismayed that teachers who defile their pupils continue to be in the service even after such cases have been reported to the relevant authorities for action.
Mrs Mukatimui was addressing 30 participants drawn from the Ministries of Education, Health and Zambia Police on a four day workshop held at Regina Home Based Care recently.

She said her organization was currently handling a case in which a named teacher of Kaoma secondary school allegedly defiled and impregnated his 15-year-old pupil in 2010 whose twins he has neglected.

She disclosed that she had received a complaint from the victim who has allegedly been abandoned by the named teacher from Kaoma secondary school.

She said that after being summoned by her organization, the named teacher indicated that he was not ready to marry the girl but offered to take the victim back to school.

Mrs Mukatimui bemoaned the withdrawal of the case from the police after the victim‘s parents agreed to a K6, 000.00 compensation.

She noted with sadness that the trend of withdrawing cases was perpetuating the vice in the district.

She however, appealed to parents in the district to avoid settling and negotiating defilement cases at their homes and urged teachers to desist from dating school going pupils if quality education is to be achieved in the district.

Mrs Mukatimui further disclosed that her organization together with Kaoma Secondary School authorities recorded 63 pregnancies last year in 2013 and that five new pregnancy cases have also been recorded in the first term of the 2014 school calendar.

Mrs Mukatimui also called on the school management to scrutinize and stop granting maternity leave to pupils who fall pregnant if the girls are below the age of 16 years saying such cases should be reported to the Police Victim Support Unit for legal proceedings.

She said the workshop is being conducted to shade light on neglected health issues on sexual reproduction health and building the capacity of the service providers in the ministries of health and education in the district.