Teenage pregnancy at schools becomes a nightmare for learners and teachers.
Tebogo Dikale
Tebogo Dikale
Province North West
District Bojanala
Municipality Rustenburg
Town Phokeng
Date 17 June 2024
Teenage pregnancy at schools becomes a nightmare for learners and teachers.
This issue has become a problem in high/secondary schools in South Africa and Phokeng is one area that is also affected by this matter. As the problem persists, there are a few reasons that could contribute to this problem.
*Behavior of learners
*Location of the school
*Affordability
*Access to information
*Communication with both class managers and learners.
Phokeng is one of the areas affected by this, it has three (3) secondary schools: –
*Keledi Secondary School at Kgale section
*Bafokeng High School situated in Leratong and lastly
*Matale Secondary School which is my main focus.
Matale Secondary School is situated in the Salema section, where its location is just a yard away between the tavern and the school, one street from Bafokeng Mall next to Royal Bafokeng Sports Ground.
What prompted me to write about this topic was seeing three (3) different learners with the same school uniform pregnant, going to drop my son at school in the morning who’s doing grade one (1) Looking at our village, the economy is very viable and vibrant. The population is growing, and entertainment (Pubs/Taverns) is also becoming a norm in our society. Which makes alcohol very easily accessible to these young kids.
Boitumelo is in grade eleven (11) and is attending the very same school, I asked her about “teenage pregnancy” and the Love Life organization programs they bring to the school, fortunately, I met her legal guardian “Julia” who also agreed to the interview, here is how she (Boitumelo) responded. “Firstly, I don’t want to fall pregnant. I want to finish my matric and further my studies, but I see other girls doing funny things with boys and others dating guys who are working. Last year in grade 10, 2023 we lost two girls who were pregnant. This year we have one (1) girl also pregnant in my class”. She concludes.
Boitumelo organised her friends too, to share their views. One of them is currently pregnant, Lesego Nameng* and Otshepeng Molefe*.
Lesego is pregnant, she found out after two (2) months when Love Life came to school and did their program outside the school and took the test, that’s how she found out. She thanked Love Life for their efforts coming to school too, but also said it’s not enough. “It is difficult for me to concentrate in class as my classmates are making fun of me and the teachers too making it more difficult”.
She went further and elaborated more and mentioned her boyfriend saying they hadn’t spoken for weeks after breaking the news to him. This is in May 2024; the guy works at Impala Mine. He was giving her money, that’s why they didn’t use protection when having sex with him. “He gave me so much money, so I wasn’t thinking about protection often when having sex with him”, concluded Lesego.
Otshepeng Molefe, also attends the very same school, in grade eleven (11) and both are friends. Yooh! Friend! “Nna I want to finish school before I can think of mjolo” and they both laughed. “I see teachers making fun of my friend here and it breaks my heart to hear them both making fun of her, after all, she’s still a human being”. Added Otshepeng. “I think our education system needs social workers in our schools to help us because teachers are not helping at all. They make matters worse when you are pregnant, yoh !!”. She said to Otshepeng, “So nna(me) I can’t afford to swallow the behavior. I rather repeat a class than fall pregnant”. Concluded Otshepeng.
Lesego Nameng also added that Love Life should do more between the School Governing Body and the Department of Basic Education in terms of engaging learners on how to tackle this issue. Learners must be given a chance to engage on the subject of how to prevent teenage pregnancy at schools because the department is imposing programs that are not helping at all. They both mentioned learners who were pregnant and left the school. The number is shocking as I didn’t expect it, they mentioned their names, almost sixteen (16).
Lesego feels like the information needs to be more accessible and environment-friendly when a learner finds herself in this situation, to avoid depression as they face it at times. Even at home, it is quite difficult. My mom “Mpho” is disappointed with me. She’s not helping me to deal with my situation. Lesego’s mother Mpho was not okay with me doing an interview but after explaining to her she agreed and gave me the green light to write a piece about her daughter. She also added a few words saying she was disappointed in her child. “I’m disappointed, I asked myself where did I go wrong as a parent. But what can I say, it happened. I guess I will have to deal with the situation, but she has to return to school and finish it. Now that she’s pregnant, her dreams have changed”. Added the mother.
*Not their real names
