Ten girl pupils among them a grade six pupil at a named school in Kapiri Mposhi Town fell pregnant between January and June 2022.
Kapiri Mposhi District Education Board Secretary Boas Banda says nine other affected girls are in grades eight, 11 and 12, respectively.
Mr Banda in an interview reveled that six of the affected girls have since been granted leave from school while four others have continued attending classes in their pregnancy condition.
” My office received a report on the situation of pregnancies at named school where 10 girls were impregnated but according to government policy these girls have been retained as they are in school while others have been given leave to come back after they deliver,” Mr Banda said.
The DEBS attributed the high incident rates in pregnancies among school going girls at the institution to lack of boarding facilities which is forcing pupils to rent accommodation in the nearby communities as weekly boarders.
Lack of information on sexual and reproductive health among pupils and some local cultural practices are other factors promoting the vice.
” Most learners coming from far villages opt to rent houses in the villages around the school to avoid walking to school daily so this makes them vulnerable,” Mr Banda said.
Mr Banda says the school authorities have however engaged landlords in the surrounding villages on the need to take care of the pupils renting accommodation from them.
The school authorities have also embarked on community sensitization campaigns to curb early marriages and teenage pregnancies in the area.
Meanwhile, an anti-Gender Based Violence (GBV) activist Ben Chiboni has bemoaned incidences of pregnancies among school going girls in Chief Mukonchi’s area.
Mr Chiboni noted that the cases of pregnancies among pupils is a drawback to progress of a girl child to pursue education.
Mr Chiboni , who is also former Kakwelesa ward councilor , has called on the traditional leadership to work with other stakeholders in the area to come up with measures to curb early marriages and teenage pregnancies.
He has also appealed to government to construct boarding facilities at the school to provide accommodation for pupils covering long distances to access education at the learning facility.
A sign of the poor performing economy under upnd. Young girls have no option but to offer dumbwi for food