Government says no research on assumed cause of schoolgirl pregnancies

Dodoma. No research has so far been conducted to substantiate assumptions that most school girl pregnancies were as a result of girls travelling long distances to and from school, the government said on Thursday, June 20, 2019.

The Deputy Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments), Mr Joseph Kandege told the Parliament that the widely-held assumptions have so far not been backed by any research.

“At times, school girl pregnancies happen during holidays. There is no research to back the assumption that they (the pregnancies) were a result of distances to and from school,” he said, calling upon members of the community to help in coming up with solutions to the problem.

Mr Kandege was responding to a question from Joseph Selasini (Rombo - Chadema) who wanted to know steps being taken by the government in building hostels in ward secondary schools to tame school girl pregnancies.

Mr Selasini’s question was supplementary to one asked by Ms Joram Gidarya (Special Seats - Chadema).

In her key question, Ms Gidarya said the number of students in ward secondary schools live in rented rooms, asking the government to increase the pace of construction of hostels.

But according to Mr Kandege, the government’s plan was to improve the learning environment across all schools, noting that during the 2018/19 financial year, it (the government) has built 938 classrooms, 2,141 toilet holes, 210 hostels, 47 teachers’ houses, 22 laboratory buildings, 39 library rooms and 76 dining halls.

He said in February, 2019, the government also disbursed Sh29.9 billion for completing the construction of 2,392 classroom blocks for secondary schools across the country.