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Chipata District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) Gabriel Chutu says 100 teenage pregnancies were recorded in the first quarter of 2022 in Chipata District.
Mr Chutu says in the same quarter, the district also recorded 25 early marriages of which five involved young boys.
Speaking to ZANIS in an interview today, Mr Chutu said the District Education Office (DEO) recorded a number of 42 girls re-entered into school after giving birth under the same period this year.
Mr Chutu said a total of 180 other dropouts were recorded of which the 94 dropouts were girls.
He said that under the first quarter, his office recorded 439 pupils re-entered into school of which 239 were female.
Mr Chutu said his office is working with various stakeholders in the district to effectively ensure that it protects young girls from early marriages and teenage pregnancies as well as promote Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) among adolescents.
“We support girl’s menstrual hygiene by ensuring that sanitary towels are provided at school,” he said.
Mr Chutu said his office is also implementing the re-entry policy in order to give opportunity to the girl child of getting an education during pregnancy and after giving birth.
“We implement the re-entry policy into school by allowing girls who fall pregnant to be learning until such a time that the pregnancy advances, that’s when we give the maternity leave and allow them to come back later after they have given birth, “he said.
Mr Chutu said his office also links girls who are vulnerable or whose families are financially disabled to organisations which give school requisites.
