Teenage pregnancy in our Primary and Secondary Schools
Dineo Rasetshwane
Teenage pregnancy in our Primary and Secondary schools
Although there is a Code of conduct in schools, we still experience a problem of cases of teenage pregnancy even in primary schools. We are based in a mining environment and young girls in our community are dating older men for money this is how teenagers fall pregnant because they sell their bodies to feed themselves. Some even feed their families with the money they get from those older men.
I interviewed Ororiseng about teenage pregnancy and how she feels about learners who fall pregnant in her school, and she said “I feel bad because we always talk about abstinence and focus on our education and future, however, I advised them to learn from their mistakes and go back to school and finish their studies.”Teenagers also fall pregnant because some live in child-headed families they have to look after their younger siblings, and there is no one to guide them through. Teenagers also use drugs and alcohol, both boys and girls, and become irresponsible and end up sleeping together and that’s where the pregnancy happens.
Our tavern owners are also failing us by allowing them to enter taverns. One day my cousin’s daughter as young as 14 went to the tavern. We looked for her everywhere except in taverns, because we never thought she could go there. We were called by a neighbor to come and fetch her at the tavern, and that’s where we realized that some people in this community don’t love kids, they want money. It broke my heart and I told one of the Tribal Officers who advised me to report the tavern owner to the cops.
I called the cops and asked them to patrol all the taverns in Sefikile so that they could see what was happening in our community. They promised to send a van over a weekend and I never saw a police van patrolling the village or the taverns. Community members were in support of me on this incident and they also didn’t see the van patrolling, and when I called again on Monday they said there were no bakkies.
They promised to come and patrol on busy days because that’s when people lose focus and that’s when teenagers get the opportunity to sneak out from their homes.
