More than 1,700 pregnancies in Eastern Province were recorded among school girls from January, 2020 to September, 2020.
Provincial Education Officer (PEO) Allan Lingambe says Petauke district recorded the highest number of pregnancies in the province at 391 followed by Katete which had recorded 214.
Speaking in an interview , Dr. Lingambe said from the 1,784 pregnancies captured, Chipata district had recorded 188 teen pregnancies while Sinda and Lumezi districts had 171 and 131 cases recorded respectively.
He said Chasefu had 103 teenage pregnancies, Kasenengwa recorded 92 cases, Lusangazi had 87, and Chipangali had recorded 85 while in Lundazi district 81 school girls were impregnated.
Dr. Lingambe said in Vubwi district 78 cases of teen pregnancies were captured while in Nyimba and Mambwe 78 and 71 school girls became pregnant under the same period.
He said Chadiza district recorded 44 teenage pregnancies not the 106 that was earlier published in media.
Dr. Lingambe said the 106 teenage pregnancies that were alleged to come from Chadiza district was total misinformation because his office had the correct statistics from the district.
He said his office is working in partnership with various stakeholders to ensure that teenage pregnancies are reduced in Eastern Province.
Dr. Lingambe said teachers are working hard to effectively implement the Sexuality Comprehensive Education (SCE) so that young girls are equipped with knowledge of noticing abusive advances on them.
He appealed to parents in the province to also collaborate with the teachers to ensure that young girls are protected from sexual abuse.
Dr. Lingambe said parents must closely monitor and interact with their daughters at all costs so that the young girls are adequately protected from any form of abuse at home.
He said the recorded 1,784 teenage pregnancies were recorded before the COVID-19 period.
ZANIS/ENDS/SC/BS…..dry
Too much raw groundnuts!!
The PF govt will blame Covid-19 and the opposition. These pathetic leaders together with Godfridah woman need to know that sexual education is in dire need in the country. Let us educate our children how they can protect themselves from the PF cadres who are busy impregnating them. These chaps are lacking skills to protect themselves and prevent unwanted pregnancies and STI. These are basic important issues that young people need to know because we have a bunch uncaring men out there.
This the development the PF have delivered .Teenage pregnance and hunger .
Find solutions kabili. Christian nation my @$$!!
Don’t they have TV in eastern province?
Ati Zambia is a Christian nation.
Disgusting culture.
Where are the police??
How old are the girls? Because girls of a consenting age can attend school. So how can we stop them sleeping with whomever they want? Who are we to stop consenting adults from doing the doing?
Go therefore and reproduce
One must look at the cultural aspect of sex education according to our traditions. Traditionally when a girl comes of age then she was considered ready for sex and marriage . hence the fisungu, mwalanjo , ndola training sessions.
Perhaps we have to start from repackaging our traditional sex education in order to change the mindset.
Sounds like the girls are highly bored, no other entertainment, perhaps look at some girl child programs to keep them busy. Encourage afternoon classes or Prep as we used to call in back in the day to keep them longer in school. As for weekends, each parent is responsible for their own children.