Teen pregnancies decrease at Ncamagoro Combined School
‘Problem school’ turns things around
Life science teacher Theresia Mayira ascribed the high pregnancy rate during 2021 to the pandemic's lockdowns.
After finding itself in the spotlight for having the highest recorded pregnancy rate among learners in the Kavango West Region in 2021, Ncamagoro Combined School has since recorded a substantial decrease in pregnancies.
Despite the initial alarming statistics of about 40 girls falling pregnant in 2021, data from last year indicated a positive shift, with only 12 pregnancies recorded.
According to life science teacher Theresia Mayira, the high pregnancy rate during 2021 was a result of the Covid-19 pandemic’s lockdowns.
“The 40 learners that we are talking about are the ones who returned to school after [lockdown]. Some girls who fell pregnant that year never came back.
“Poor parental guidance was mostly the cause. Since most of the parents are unemployed, the children are forced to do everything for themselves and their parents.
“Also, due to different cultural backgrounds, some of the parents allow their children to get into early marriages as a means of survival to fulfil their economic needs,” she said.
Mayira explained that since the school does not have a hostel and some learners live far from school, parents have taken the initiative to build shacks near the school to avoid children having to walk long distances every day.
“With no parents or guardians to look after them, some learners tend to move in with their boyfriends and girlfriends, which at the end of the day leads to things like teenage pregnancies.”
Contraceptives
The school undertook a number of measures to reduce the teenage pregnancies, she said.
“The first thing we did was create a girls' club and boys' club. We gathered the learners after every two months and taught them about pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. We also invited stakeholders such as our local clinic’s nurses, who came to educate the learners on various topics as well as provide them with things like contraceptives and condoms.
“We realised that some of the boys were not comfortable with going to the clinic to collect condoms and were more comfortable with collecting them from their teachers. So, what we did was collect the condoms for them, which made things a bit easier,” she said.
The teacher narrated that she and her colleagues went above and beyond to act like bonus parents for the learners, as many parents showed no interest in the matter of reproductive education.
“We do occasionally call for parent meetings where we talk to the parents about these types of matters. The meetings help a lot because we now see parents coming to our office to talk to us about the problems they are facing with the learners at home,” she said, adding that the collaboration between parents and teachers “really assists the learners in realising what is the best for them".
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Despite the initial alarming statistics of about 40 girls falling pregnant in 2021, data from last year indicated a positive shift, with only 12 pregnancies recorded.
According to life science teacher Theresia Mayira, the high pregnancy rate during 2021 was a result of the Covid-19 pandemic’s lockdowns.
“The 40 learners that we are talking about are the ones who returned to school after [lockdown]. Some girls who fell pregnant that year never came back.
“Poor parental guidance was mostly the cause. Since most of the parents are unemployed, the children are forced to do everything for themselves and their parents.
“Also, due to different cultural backgrounds, some of the parents allow their children to get into early marriages as a means of survival to fulfil their economic needs,” she said.
Mayira explained that since the school does not have a hostel and some learners live far from school, parents have taken the initiative to build shacks near the school to avoid children having to walk long distances every day.
“With no parents or guardians to look after them, some learners tend to move in with their boyfriends and girlfriends, which at the end of the day leads to things like teenage pregnancies.”
Contraceptives
The school undertook a number of measures to reduce the teenage pregnancies, she said.
“The first thing we did was create a girls' club and boys' club. We gathered the learners after every two months and taught them about pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. We also invited stakeholders such as our local clinic’s nurses, who came to educate the learners on various topics as well as provide them with things like contraceptives and condoms.
“We realised that some of the boys were not comfortable with going to the clinic to collect condoms and were more comfortable with collecting them from their teachers. So, what we did was collect the condoms for them, which made things a bit easier,” she said.
The teacher narrated that she and her colleagues went above and beyond to act like bonus parents for the learners, as many parents showed no interest in the matter of reproductive education.
“We do occasionally call for parent meetings where we talk to the parents about these types of matters. The meetings help a lot because we now see parents coming to our office to talk to us about the problems they are facing with the learners at home,” she said, adding that the collaboration between parents and teachers “really assists the learners in realising what is the best for them".
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