Pregnancies galore at Mchinji school
Sopa Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) in Mchinji has registered 111 pregnancies over a period of three years, a development which has contributed to a high dropout rate of girls from the institution, The Nation can reveal.
The majority of the girls who fell pregnant are those in self-boarding facilities that could not manage to commute an average of 25 kilometres (km) between the school and their respective homes everyday.
The school’s head teacher, Jonathan Magombo, confirmed the development, saying the learners’ behaviour after school hours is beyond the school’s control.
Said Magombo: “In 2012/2013 academic year, 49 girls got pregnant and dropped out of school. During the 2013/2014 academic year, there were 35 pregnancies while in 2014/2015 academic year we had 27 pregnancies. As if that is not enough, this academic year is just four weeks old we already have two pregnancies. Mostly, the girls who fell pregnant are self-boarders since this school does not have boarding facilities and learners are selected to this school from far away primary schools.”
One of the girls who got pregnant, Mercy Phiri (not real name), confessed that it was not her intention to have a sexual relationship with a man while at the school, but insufficient financial support from her parents forced her to accept a proposal from a young man who was working at the trading centre as a tailor, to meet her financial needs.
Executive director for Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec), Benedicto Kondowe, said he is not surprised with the Sopa developments because the current status quo in CDSSs is not helpful.
