Teenage pregnancy on the rise :: Mmegi Online

United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) has revealed that every day 20 000 girls under the age of 18 give birth. In Botswana, although the numbers are not that high, there is growing concerning regarding the increasing rate of teenage and adolescent pregnancies, leading to school dropouts.

UNFPA’s state of the world population report of 2013, has noted that in 2011, Botswana recorded a 39 primary school students dropped out due to pregnancy, while in the same year 453 dropped out of both junior and secondary schools. Last year there was an increase to 2013. As at September 2013, pregnancies in secondary schools had already exceeded 50, with 21 cases being reported in the two secondary schools in Nata.

Launching the UNFPA report, which is subtitled ‘Motherhood in Childhood: Facing the Challenge of Adolescent Pregnancy’, Minister of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi reiterated the widespread effects of an adolescent pregnancy.

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