• FIRST Lady Esther Lungu addresses pupils from Njase, Choma and Cuunda Secondary schools during Alchemy workshop at Leons Lodge in Choma
yesterday. Picture By THOMAS NSAMA/STATE HOUSE

By CHILA NAMAIKO –
SIXTEEN school girls have failed to sit for their grade nine final examinations at Kachomba Secondary School in Southern Province this year, after falling pregnant.
The 88-year-old school in Pemba District located about 45 kilometres from Pemba town currently has 1,016 pupils including day-scholars.
The figure is a significant increase from last year after school headteacher Roy Mainga reported that six pupils could not write their final examinations in 2014 after becoming pregnant soon before the tests.
First Lady Esther Lungu who is in Southern Province was saddened by the development and has called for collective efforts to curb early pregnancies and child marriages.
Mr Mainga told Ms Lungu that the school was experiencing an increase in cases of pregnancies due to long distances that children walked from their homes.
Speaking when the First Lady visited the school in Chief Hamaundu’s area on Tuesday, Mr Mainga also attributed the rise in pregnancies to early marriages in the area.
“It’s sad just this year, 16 of our pupils failed to write their grade nine examinations because of either pregnancy or breastfeeding babies,” he said.
He appealed for the construction of bigger hostels to accommodate school girls who were day-scholars to curb cases of pregnancy.
The First Lady said early pregnancies and child marriages were depriving the girl-child of a productive future.
She urged chiefs to sturdily help the Government in ending early marriages and pregnancies especially on the girl-child.
“We strongly need to protect the girl-child against harmful vices; it’s not right that some parents look at the girl-child as a business through early marriages, we need to collectively end this vice,” she said.
She later interacted with women clubs at the school who displayed their curios before donating K20,000 to all the clubs. Ms Lungu also gave out K50 to each of the 50 elderly women in the area.
Women club representative Agness Haziba commended Ms Lungu for her generosity.
At Jembo Mission Hospital, Ms Lungu pledged to lobby for more health facilities to ease operations of the institution.
Ms Lungu, who was accompanied by Provincial Permanent Secretary Sibanze Simuchoba among other officials, pledged to scout for educational scholarships for hard working pupils.