119 school girls impregnated in Eastern province in the last quarter

Government says over one hundred and ninety pregnancies have been recorded in Eastern province during the first quarter of this year.

This came to light during two day second ordinary Provincial Development Coordinating Committee (PDCC) meeting held at Luangwa house in Chipata today.

Provincial Senior Planner, Mang’ombe Tembo, says 194 girls fell pregnant during the period adding that out of the number of impregnated girls , 105 of them were re-admitted after delivery.

He also noted that 13 boys and 21 girls respectively where forced into early marriages in the area.

The department  has had a big challenge to address the issue of pregnancies and children going into early marriages, Mr. Tembo said.

He implored other stakeholders such as the departments of health and Community Development to partner with the department of Education to address the problem.

And Mr. Tembo said the Ministry had enrolled 12, 064 children into Early childhood education.

He however said the Ministry had recorded successes in the pass rate where the region scored above 70 percent at Grades seven and 12 pass rates.

Mr. Tembo said at grade nine level, the Ministry was not doing well and recorded below par, compared to the targets set in the strategic plan.

‘’ At grades seven and 12, we recorded above 70 percent pass rate where Vubwi district was number one in the province and second in the country at grade seven level.

‘ We however have a challenge at grade nine level where we are not doing well and we want to see what is causing that so that we improve in the coming years,’’ he said.

Mr. Tembo said last year, the province came first at grade 12 pass rate in the entire country while it came second at grade seven and third at grade nine levels respectively.