Source: IOL News
‘Few issues have so divided politicians, policymakers, education officials, school governing bodies, principals, teachers, learners and the public as what to do about teenage pregnancy.”
This was Gauteng MEC Barbara Creecy’s opening line in Turffontein, Joburg, yesterday at a colloquium to discuss ways of reducing teenage pregnancy.
Creecy said even though the number of pupils falling pregnant was decreasing in Gauteng, the Education Department would continue to bolster efforts to fight what remained a huge societal problem.
She said pupils who did not perform well at school wereat greater risk of falling pregnant.
“If girls feel that they’re not performing well academically, won’t pass matric and reach their dreams, they seek other ways to affirm themselves in society and other ways to affirm their adulthood,” she said.
Lisa Vetten, a gender activist and researcher at the Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, said girls with much older boyfriends tended to be at risk of engaging in unsafe sex and falling pregnant.
She said research had shown that these girls, who were also prone to being physically abused, tended to give in to sex out of fear, and their first sexual encounter was likely to be forced.
Vetten said even though teenage pregnancies were condemned publicly, vulnerable young women were often under pressure from their partners and families to “prove their fertility”.
“There’s a difference between what people say publicly about teenage pregnancy and what they say privately. People may openly say teenage pregnancy is bad, but girls are under a lot of pressure to prove their fertility from their families and communities,” she said.
Vetten said girls needed to be taught about gender violence.
Dr Elizabeth Floyd from the Gauteng Department of Health said social issues such as alcohol and drug abuse and unemployment often led to risky sexual behaviour.
She said drug habits propelled young men to turn to crime for money, and women into prostitution.
Floyd also said young women engaged in “transactional sex” for financial security.
She said young women tended to find older, mobile men with money, “3Ms” - and used sex for survival.
Dr Misheck Ndebele, a lecturer at the Wits School of Education, said globally, sexually transmitted infections were increasing among adolescents.
He said the lack of accurate information about HIV/Aids, sexuality and personal skills on safe sex contributed to risky sexual behaviour.
The breakdown of family structures and the lack of parental monitoring was a huge contributor to risky behaviour by children.
Ndebele called on the government to reintroduce religious education, which “shapes the characters of young people”.
“Why did the government do away with religious studies? Research has shown there’s a link between religion - and I’m not talking about Christianity but all religions – and young people and risky behaviour,” he said.