TEENAGE pregnancies have become a public health issue because of the long-term negative effects they have on the future of affected girls, including morbidity.
Statistics for 2013 showing that 12,500 pregnancies were recorded at primary school level while another 2,428 in secondary schools, as announced by the Ministry of Education, are not only shocking but a choking problem on efforts to educate the girl-child.
The figures are disturbing in view of the fact that every pregnancy results from unprotected sex, which leaves these young girls also vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, including the dreaded
HIV/AIDS.
The reality of the matter is that every year more and more teens are getting pregnant at an alarming young age. This raises the question of what can be done to prevent and lower the rates of teenage pregnancies.
From these statistics, it is a fact that many school-going children are engaging in sexual activities at an early age and, despite this sad scenario, teenagers need to have a comprehensive understanding of abstinence, contraceptive techniques, as well as consequences of a lack of these.
Although there are many different ways of preventing teenage girls from becoming pregnant, the one that is absolutely effective is abstinence, the only one that can equally protect the teen from getting any sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
One author, Hani Khouzam wrote in an article entitled ‘Promotion of sexual abstinence: Reducing adolescent sexual activity and pregnancies’ that “Sexual abstinence is not associated with public health risks and needs to be presented and promoted as the most effective primary prevention for unplanned pregnancies.”
Although abstinence remains the best way to prevent pregnancy among teens, not all teens abstain as it is a fact that there are still a large number of them who are involved in sexual relations.
For this reason, most of the sex education in schools consists of one message: “Don’t have sex–but if you do, use a condom.”
The problem that arises from this is that teenagers are not being exposed to extensive information on the various forms of birth control such as condoms and other methods of prevention that are available.
Research shows that it is the responsibility of parents and school authorities to teach teens the negative effects of teenage pregnancy.
Parents can influence their children’s decisions by taking time to explain to them disadvantages of teenage sex. Schools on the other hand can do their part by encouraging teens to concentrate on education and nothing else.
Therefore, it is a responsibility of adults to make teens clearly understand the consequences of sexual activity and convince them to abstain and, where one cannot abstain, use contraceptives.
The Government has come up with a re-entry policy to allow pregnant pupils get readmitted into school, but such a wise move seems to be abused judging by the rate of teenage pregnancies being recorded in schools, especially at primary level.
Stakeholders in the education sector, particularly those engaged in the promotion of girl-child education, need to reflect on this matter before efforts to encourage girl-child learning in the country go to waste.
The adage that any problem starts smaller until it reaches a point where it gets out of hand ties in well with the issue of early pregnancies in schools. Not all is lost though in this endeavour, but
time is now to act on this problem. If left unchecked, the population of school children getting pregnant will leave a much bigger problem as they are exposing themselves, knowingly or unknowingly, to the threat of contracting HIV/AIDS.