Over Four hundred [400] female Grade Seven pupils did not write their final examinations in Kalabo district in Luapula Western Province last year.
Education Standards Officer [ESO] General Inspector Keith Inambao who disclosed this during the first stakeholders meeting on Gender in Development held in the Council chamber in Kalabo yesterday described the situation as very serious.
He called for serious interventions into the matter for the betterment of the girl child’s future.
Inspector Inambao said that the affected pupils did not write their final examinations due to pregnancies and the practice of compelling them into early marriages.
He said that in the year 2009 more than five hundred [500] Grade Seven pupils did not write their final examinations because of pregnancies and early marriages.
He said that Kalabo was the most hit district in Western Province if not in the entire country due to the same problems.
Inspector Inambao noted that efforts to report such cases to Police failed because parents of the affected pupils protected their children saying they were grown up.
The Education Standards Officer further said this was bringing the passing rate of grade seven pupils down in Kalabo district.
He added that the parents of the affected pupils merely focused on the short term benefit of dowry at the expense of their children’s future.
[ ZANIS ]
This is tragic, ona mitenye yemubona ye, kona ye pupulikanisa Kunda mwa mubeto wa HIV. Cwale ona buzwiinyani bwa Kalabo bobu tonezi teka cawna boo, ncwa ya “Kunda” yabu kutula.
Ukutemwa ubuchende……ulupiya..notwalowa…EISH
Kalabo district in Luapula Province? I have never heard of it…
sad story, mwebaana ala muletekanya,
ififine ifisungu bamingishamo efile myonaula
This is not true how many schools are in Kalabo to have this big number of girls falling pregnant at such an alarming rate. check your facts before publishing the articles. Do you mean all the grade seven girls in Kalabo are pregnant.
Ok ninshi kwaliba sex uku. But 400 seems like more than 100% for grade 7 pupils in Kalabo district of…Did u say Luapula, can you be serious?
Kalabo in Luapula??????? its news to me….
I do not believe in such assumptions, just alarming the Readers!
More 10 classes Eishh!!!! Amagedon shud just begin… sexsexsex.
malabish!! not true
these chaps…ni njota ya bwanji???
Mr. Editor, take note YJ #3 is right. there’s no Kalabo district in Luapula province. But whatever the region this is very worrying and ther’s need to dig deeper and find the reason for this. And ussually for such cases the parents or guardins have a large share of the blame. But hey let me not preempt anything.
kalabo in luapula province….BA LT lets be serious.
Its not possible,how shools are in Kalabo only? less than 15,how possible is it then that 400 under age girls can be pregnant at the same time? And you further go on to lie that 500 more missed exams in 2009,its not just possible
Elders please when you go hunting in the bushes with young boys stop showing them ifyakushetsheta thats why they are at rapid impregnating fellow minors . This is really sad if at all the data collected is true it should the main concern by the higher authority to make sure they solve this problem . Naimwe mwe twnakashi stop opening your legs anyhow!!!! And parents please be reasonable enough to always keep an eye on your girl children to at least avoid such things .
There is nothing accurate about this report. One wonders what kind of reporters compile such misleading articles.
Statistics not true! Kalabo district not in Luapula province! The girls in the picture are not from Kalabo. WHY ALL THESE MISTAKES LT?? ARE YOU SERIOUS??
same old-unrealistic and nonsensical-statistical-data. ‘wenye uwelela!’
…ok this article sounds very strange – name seem to be wrong, data suspicious….nonetheless I think the spirit of what is being discussed is very important. Girls should not be disadvantaged in this way…surely people in Kalabo of Luapula – or is it western (whaterver) should examine their care and support for children. Every child deserves a right to create their own future through education.
i thing there should be no reason why a pregnant girl should not be allowed to write the exam. in fact they should be encourage to write the exams if its not possible at that time they should make special arrangements for them to write. the education system needs to respond to the needs of society.
Eyo kwena balepopa ama boys. No play!
give the proper statistics sir Inambao..are u sure its 400?
LT Editor,
Correction: Kalabo district is just northwest of Mongu district in Western Province.
Sad development indeed, though this only goes to show the lack of development of facilities and poor enlightenment of the local population of the value of education in the modern age. More has to be done by the government through tailored programmes by the relevant ministries.
Since when ba LT did Kalabo become part of Luapula Province. An extension of the BRE????? No wonder the uproar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ama Live bad ka ku Kalabo……. Ifya kushyetashyeta…..No konka , ukonka daily nelyo mwalikula akale.
The all story is not true ,no single sentence is true
1.Kalabo is in northen province of Zambia in Mporokoso District.
2.400 pupils will take three complete schoos from grade one to seven.At kalobo they are about 290 pupils in total and only about 52 grade sevens .Where are you getting 400 puplils and only gilrs for that matter.Even Schools like Kabwata Basic in Lusaka doesnt have that huge number of girls in grade seven
3.How old are these grade sevens
4.Where are these men coming from who impregnanting these girls
Ba LT please get even simple basics before publishing something like this.
whre are these tuma NGOs who donate condoms, take them tht side and educate the masses
LT Kalabo district is in Western province and the statistics seem exaggerated. However, the soul of the article is the detrimental effect of having girl children involve themselves in ‘teen sex’. These girls who fall pregnant at an early age in life disadvantage themselves. Most of them will not go back to school as they will have to look after the babies they are bringing into this world themselves! Among them, very few if none will marry the men who impregnanted them, thereby creating future problems and complications for themselves.
As a parent, I find this to be heart breaking!
Koma nichilaaka zowona. Haven’t they heard of condoms? Live yakubuyo
Its true. I met these girls and their babies when I visited the Victoria Falls at Kasama
#28 hahahahaha “….Victoria falls at Kasama”
its long time all of u were in zambia kanshi, now there is even mwense district in western province so u didnt know? its a pitty u can only find such latest data on LT. if u want your siblings to pass grade 9 just find them a part time job at LT.
Am sure they meant 15 girls pregant from total of 250 girls in Kalabo of western province or is 50 girls pregnant from a toatl of 500 in Kaputa of luapula province.This is the problem with lies
THE STORY IS FALSE. THERE ARE NOT AS MANY PUPILS AS 400 OR 500 IN KALABO. THIS IS AMATEUR JOURNALISM
sensationalism……..get true facts. dont just be excited to publish stuff without verifying the facts.
So 400 babies, in Kalabo District alone, will be added to the population of Zambia of 13m plus as announced yesterday. By next year the total population is likely to hit 18m if we are moving at this rate, other districts added. I am also interested to know where Lundazi District is now. It is like they have started changing their geographical positions.
I agree with #28. As a parent I am saddened by this state of affairs in among these children. This looks like a symptom of a bigger problem and we need to get to the root cause real quick, or else we have a real disaster in our hands. There are a number of NOGs that are directly or indirectly involved with the welfare of girls in our Country, and we are counting on their expertise and experience to contain the situation, if they have not already done so, and to give accurate information to LT.
just for the record for some of you who are ignorant.
Kalabo is one of the six districts in Western Province. It may actually be the biggest district. So the report is talking about Kalabo district and not only Kalabo Boma or town. There are definitely more than 200 grade seven classes in Kalabo district. If you multiply that by 30 pupils per class (understated as most of these classes are crowded to more than 40 pupils) you get more than 6000 half of which may be girls. I did my primary in Nyengo which is in Kalabo bordering Angola. Every new term we lost not less than a girl to pregnancy or early marriage. Lack of entertainment and the little value placed on education in these remote areas are escalating this vice.
Ba # 38 are u the author of this misleading articles? Everything about this articles is misleading.
If you say this is correct then you are telling us that Lozi’s can not teach their Children good morals?
As far as am concerned this has nothing to do with lack of entertainment or recreational facilities.A Grade Seven Child should be busy studying and not going round looking for the so called entertainment
#39.
Am not sure whether you live in Zambia or somewhere else on this planet. The issue of early pregnancies and marriages have been reported by all media all over the country. The scourge is not only restricted to Western province alone. Just recently a marriage between minors in Northern Province was prevented by the Police and NGOs. These things happen in most of rural Zambia. Some of us who grew up there can attest to them. A comprehensive Masterplan is needed to curb this seemingly catastrophy including prosecuting of these refinement cases.
on 40, read refinement as defilement
i dont think early marriage is a problem here. is there a problem is allowing a married girl or boy in going to school?
I am actually on the ground and based in Kalabo district. I have noted ignorance exhibited by many of you. get the following facts now:
The article on on 400 female pupils missing Grade 7 exams is not true.
Kalabo district is in Western Province.
Though i do not work for the Ministry of Education, the officer to whom the article is attributed to only came to kalabo in 2009 and still has a lot to learn about statistical data as obtaining in the district. I therefore ask for his forgiveness on this exaggerated statistical data on pupil pregnancies.
I am a parent in sikongo constituency of Kalabo district and have seen the good work CAMFED is doing in addressing such issues. LT could have done well to verify facts with some other senior officials in the Ministry of…
#43 yep, even those of us that dont have much info on statistical data would be skeptical to believe such an exagerated figure… Anyway teacher waku munzi!, what would u expect, may be them sku girls readily give out their coochies live at subsidized rates!!!,… hahaha
Regarless of the technicalities of the location of the province, the numbers in the schools…the sad fact is that the story highlights a major problem in zambia, and is probably more so in rural zambia. Girls are being exploited by adult men, teachers and males who hold prominant positions in the community, it is called RAPE. Parents, women, mothers, girls need to be empowered to stand up against men who want to take advantage of their weaknesses.. Girls need to be pushed through the education system so that they can go to college and become influential citizens and break the cycle og where women are married off to rear children and feed husbands. there are many girls in villages in zambia that need to be educated and get them out of this cycle. Those men who RAPE them need to go to jail