Free State holds summit to address teen pregnancies

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South Africa’s teenage pregnancy rate remains one of the highest in the world.

Adolescence pregnancy has mostly affected girls between the ages of 10 and 19 in the Free State province.

The Free State Department of Education and the South African Democratic Teachers Union have launched a two-day pregnancy summit in Bloemfontein.

Under the theme “Protecting and Respecting the Dignity of Our Girl Child”, the aim of the summit is to address issues around teenage pregnancy.

Free State MEC for Education Makalo Mohale has called on parents, caregivers and the community to protect children as most of the time pregnancy among learners occurs as a result of sexual abuse and coerced sexual intercourse.

Mohale says the department will continue to engage with other role players and parents to strengthen the prevention of early and unintended pregnancies.

He added that the department needs to work together with the parents to support pregnant learners to ensure that early pregnancy does not impact on their education.

“Our view as the province is that we do not want to leave anyone behind despite that they may have had this unfortunate incident. So, we want to tell our society that when the learners are pregnant during their time at school, let’s not stigmatize them, number one but two let’s support them because there is still a lot that is expected of them. Being pregnant when you are a learner yes, it is a concern for us because it delays them but it doesn’t mean it is the end of the world for them, so they need to be supported.”

SADTU in the Free State has highlighted that teachers are negatively impacted by teenage pregnancy numbers that have recently sky rocketed.

SADTU provincial secretary Bricks Moloi says teachers are only trained to teach, therefore sometimes it is difficult for them to handle stigmatization and discrimination that pregnant learners encounter in the classrooms.

Moloi added that the organisation does not condone barbaric behavior of educators that have sexual relationships with learners.

One of the learners’ representatives says pregnant learners are mistreated by other learners.

“Children in our schools are mainly affected because learners usually look at them in strange way every time they pass through. They are always judged on the decision they take. It has come a problem that some of our children, we had to take them out of school and put them in either hostels or in private care so that they can still receive their education while pregnant.”

The department says as they continue to fight teenage pregnancy in schools, society also needs to take ownership and hold those responsible accountable. – Reporting by Nontsokolo Stemmere