Ndola high schools pregnancies shocker

HIGH teenage pregnancy rates have hit Ndola High schools with Chifubu topping the list at 87 pregnancies recorded last year.
A survey conducted in different schools in Ndola also shows that 10 pupils from the same school have already fallen pregnant this year.
At Milemu Secondary School, 20 pupils were pregnant last year while at Temweni High School, 15 girls are reported to have been pregnant with Lubuto High School recording 15 pregnancies among pupils, and these have gone home on maternity leave this year.
Kansenshi High School faces a similar challenge and recently, school authorities summoned parents with daughters there, and the issue of high pregnancy rate among school girls was top of the agenda.
Country-wide, figures show that 17,600 pupils became pregnant in 2012 and only 6,000 of these went back to school under the Government’s re-admission programme.
The Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) has identified lack of information on sexuality as the major cause of the increased pregnancies among the teenagers.
PPAZ executive director Edford Mutuma attributed the high pregnancy rate among pupils in high schools to peer pressure and cultural barriers, the latter which he said was also common in rural areas.
Mr Mutuma also expressed concern at the high number of young people becoming pregnant, fearing that young girls were at risk of contracting HIV, especially that they were not using condoms.
He said other reasons were lack of youth-friendly health services and infrastructure to attract young people at health centres, alcohol abuse, gender-based violence, child marriages and, most important, poverty which forced some girls into relationships with minibus and taxi drivers.
The Public Private and Drivers Association of Zambia (PPDZ) advised drivers to desist from developing relationships with pupils.

Times