Over 1,000 school pupils in Western Province fell pregnant last year alone.
This is according to the Provincial Education Officer (PEO), Muyangwa Kamutumwa, during the Provincial Education Indaba held in Mongu.
According to Mr Kamutumwa’s presentation to the indaba, basic schools accounted for the largest number of pregnancies with 1,186 while secondary Schools recorded 172 cases.
Mr Kamutumwa said out of the total of 1,358 pupils who fell pregnant, 752 got back into school after serving their maternity leave.
He said early marriages and school-girl pregnancies, apart from inadequate schools and learning materials, are one of the major challenges facing the education sector in Western Province.
The PEO said part of the strategic intervention the ministry has embarked on in the province is the engagement of the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) to solicit its support towards implementation of education plans.
And speaking at the same occasion, Induna Mayuni, a representative of the BRE, said a key to developing the education sector in the province solely depended on the improvement of roads.
Induna Mayuni observed that roads leading to schools in the province are in very deplorable state while in some cases, the roads are not even in existence.
He said this has resulted in loss of man hours as teachers have to cover long distances on foot to draw their salaries leaving pupils unattended to.
The Induna charged that unless government opens up roads leading to learning institutions in the province, no meaningful development will be recorded in the region.
And Lukulu East Member of Parliament, Christopher Kalila, has welcomed the move by the Patriotic Front government to phase out basic schools in the country.
Dr Kalila said it is evident that the system has not worked well as pupils who do well in their Grade 7 exams perform very badly at Grade 9 when they are taught by the same teachers.
He said this is an indication that primary school teachers are incapable of teaching specialized subjects in Grades 8 and 9.
Education Minister John Phiri and his Deputy David Mabumba attended the Indaba.
ZANIS
TO MUCH SEX.
1000 additions to the new nation!
But why so alarming cases of pregnancies? I wonder how many got infected with HIV. Ladies should learn to use condoms.
Babezchichi naimwe the condoms do burst nangu umpampikanye.The only solution is to stay away from sex up to until a person gets married end of story.If you feel using the condom is the way forward wait until you add 1 to the 1000 babies who were born,may be they were even more because others would have given birth to twins.Abstine,abstine,abstine
sex using a condom is not as sweeet as with non.
BRE is a respectable board in Barotseland…
Liato at work
@#3Â babezchichi
These girls have opted out of school(some haven’t even been to school), and all they want is to become mothers. Do you think they can agree to use condoms when they want children? NEVER ! It’s a real challenge my friend.
What other entertainment is there for young girls other than sex:
Sports – NOT AVAILABLE
after school activities – NOT AVAILABLE
Movie theatres – NOT AVAILABLE
You are very right. This coupled with the lack of proper role models produces what we have just read. Gone are the days lozis visited barotse land during which period kids would envy their success and work hard in school. Today their role models are their fellow failures.
These fools called lozis should come together and help their fellows. Mwanya ni zanu izo.Â
It is also important that the statistics should tell us more especially about who pregnant them?  Are they made pregnant by their school teachers, boys, or other men, or their father friends? How does this compare to the previous years? Maybe this 1000 number can be explained by the presence of policemen. Was it not here on LT where we learnt about misbehavior of policemen?
Anyway, these statistics lacks gender balance.
Children bearing children. Sad sad story. A vicious cycle of ignorance, poverty, destitution and more of the same. What is the picture in the other provinces? Who is abusing children more and getting away with it?
Western Province is too behind,its till a remote place,we need to develope this beautiful area so that people can have something to inspire them
Nyele bafana! I end here!
please work on the tradizional teaching first… 90% of the girl here lose their virginity at 15… I think its something to do with their traditional teachings… its impossible to make the same mistake at the same age in life in large numbers.. plz check go down and understand their belief… that is not the case in other provinces…
balozi too much kuchindana, but why zambia is reporting this news from the neighbours BRE, iam told they need more citizens hence the marathon production, their is free sex in barotse now to fill the land.
@1, 3, 6. 10 & 12 guys u r stupid if u dont see how bad this is far from a joke u like in countries were such under age pregnances u shld be better informed citizes it shocking.
Ninshi abaiche aba tabaishiba ama condom ? Too much niele.
These girls dont know how to say NO…Nakana, sinifuna….you cant just blame the men who climb them.
I said and will say one more time, its a disgrace to be a Lozi, if I was one of them I would resign as their tribal member. There is no way a daughter can get pregnant a such age as 16 yrs or a basic school pupil without a father getting involved. Its their fathers responsible for all those pregnancies. My daughter will never be pregnant until she turns 40 yrs old. Lozi 2nd worst tribe/province after Ungas.
Zabia is very underpopulated. Compare UK with landmass 3 times smaller that Zambia: The population there is about 63 million. Zambia only 13 million. We need to reproduce ourselves, create market for goods and keep the economy moving in a large population. Why insist on population shrink when else where they are reproducing themselves so much that they are now heading from the far east to come and occupy empty spaces in Zambia. This sounds counter measures meant to curb family size. The family size issue is mainly as a result of money supply. Reproduce yourselves and fill up your empty spaces. Aids has already claimed it toll, those we would have been with, its a shortfall and we need extra. Don;t follow those who have deliberately decided not to reproduce themselves.
# 13 What point are you making here? Your English is so bad that it is difficult to make sense out of your  submission. You sound even more stupid !  Can you edit your submission and post it again?
Oh lozi girls are well cultured and know how satisfy a partner. We need more voters from loziland so job well done.
This very sad for the country generally and the young girls of Western province in particular. I guess the Litunga and his crazy indunas instructed them to get pregnant in order to populate Western province should they secede.
Hold the fanatical litunga accountable.
#13 is the one f u c k i n g those kids guys! i mean, read his post.hehehehehe!! he dropped out of school just to f u c k them kids.lkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Nostradamus what tribe are you? You are stooopid. Iam a Bisa or what most of. you wrongly identify as Bemba and my girlfriend is Lozi. I won’t take your attempt at inciting tribal welfare lightly. There is no one tribe inclined to under age pregnancy. The whole nation is vulnerable especially if the Govt neglects bringing development (and education) to a region. Just because your media focusses on Western province’s negatives doesn’t mean these aren’t happening in Kasama, Chipata or Solwezi. Open your eyes. Open your mind!
Elyo iwe wine Nosta fImo fimo wafuma kung’anda iyaaa bututu nganshi. Wamona internet waambo kumona kwati wasanga civilisation. Uli musenshi!
This is the only clever provinvce which has reported, let all peos to report you will see how WP will be dwarfed, i commend the peo for having the data, including re-entry cases. Imagine border towns like nakonde and transit areas like kapiri..
Now someone can conclude that aba maule. Next timedont blame the police but local fishermen in kaoma
and mongu
One of the statistics never released with these school pregnancies is the actual age of the girls. In these rural schools it isn’t surprising to find a 25 year old in grade 8. So we can’t conclude just yet that these pregnancies involve young children
The reporting is incomplete and biased to make WP look bad with iresponsible elements on account of school girls pregnances. Pse LT give us statics in terms age, numbers, population of school girls etc per province. I am sure you will find that CB, Lusaka and CP beat WP on numbers alone because the have more people.
How old are these Girls, this is beyond Jokes Zambians. It is birth of poverty and other troubles like AIDs, YOUNG Zambians abstain from SEX?? Gee ukufitemwa Nobwaiche Bwaiche?? My Lozi Cousins, why your Province only?? Is it the Litapi (FISH) or Mtototo??
Let the girls go back to school. The damage has been done yes, but we can’t forever cry over spilt milk. It is time we repaired the damage. The girls too, I am sure have learnt a lesson.
Q
Sad and indeed sad……….Govt and traditional leaders should do something about this instead of laughing at them.
Poverty and poverty by design. Nobody will emancipate you from this yoke of poverty but yourself.
@mashindu.Your Mothers big pussy.