Teenage pregnancy among school learners

Education about cause and effects of teenage pregnancy among school learners and advocay.

1. Teenage pregnancy among school learners by Zakithi Ganyaza & Monwabisi Mkhize

2. TEENAGE PREGANCY AMONG SCHOOL LEARNERS A teenager is a young adult between thirteen and nineteen years old. Pregnancy is a condition of a woman and some female animals having young developing inside the womb Teenage pregnancy it is then the condition in which the young adult or female fall pregnant in an early age of adolescence

3. CAUSES OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY AMONG SCHOOL LEARNERS

4. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE Schoolgirl pregnancy, established the lack of authentic knowledge about sexuality issues. Adequate knowledge about sexuality can only be obtained by education and the family and parents are regarded as the most suitable to inform the child about sexuality issues However, in certain cultures sexuality issues are the least spoken about or discussed by members of the family, any sex topic is taboo

5. Peer pressure After the family, the peer group is the most important socialisation agent. Peers or school girls are easily influenced by each other because share a great deal of their lives with the peer group. Teenagers influenced each other to indulge in sex, using the terms “everyone does it” or it is because they do not want to “feel left out” .

6. MEDIA The mass media with its sexualised content is also a contributing factor that perpetuates schoolgirl pregnancies as it gives teenagers easy access to pornographic and adult television programmes

7. . Absenteeism A pregnant schoolgirl may miss some classes during the day when she is not feeling well. School days are missed when the pregnant schoolgirl has to visit a clinic or doctor and during the final of stages of her pregnancy, delivery and after the birth of the baby.

8. Poor performance in school work Being frequently absent from school results in pregnant school girls missing a lot of schoolwork (e.g. lessons, assignments, tests) which results in poor performance in school work.

9. SCHOOL DROPOUT Teenage mothers are unable to cope with caring for a baby and attending to the needs of schooling. Due to poverty in rural areas schoolgirls have to leave school and find work to earn extra income for their children despite the availability of a child grant. Pregnant schoolgirls are stigmatized, discriminated against in school .

10. Our objective We want to reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy among school learners. the learners have to know about the real causes and effects of teenage pregnancy and we want the information to be relevant as possible to them.

11. Developing a strategy To solve this issue we can launch programmes in school. Involve stake holders such as parents, social workers, nurses, pastors,NGOs, government organisations, and general people from the community who went through teenage pregnancy The involved stake holders will be given a chance to educate according to their fields of specialisation and experiences about teenage pregnancy. There should be fundraising to prepare for the refreshments and other resources like speakers of the day of the campaign etc.

12. Plan the activities Nurses will come to the school and talk with learners about pregnancy and how it might be prevented in addition learners will be advised about the use of contraceptive methods such as the use of condoms (both for male and female), the use of contraceptive pills as well as injection. . Another thing that we can do is to build partnership with other groups or individuals that have the same aim of accomplishing the same purpose/goal. Working with other groups or individuals will enlarge the support, magnifies the existing/available recourses and enhance the influence of the campaign.

13. Identify and mobilize the required resources When we call parents for a meeting we will need a venue, the venue for meetings will be the school hall. The school hall have enough chairs for everybody to sit down. The nurses will hand out pamphlets to the learners and parents during our meetings and these pamphlets will have all the information about teenage pregnancy and how it can be prevented. For this campaign nurses will have to bring contraceptives such as pills and condoms, in addition learners will be thought about the safety ways of using the contraceptives .

14. Monitor and evaluate the campaign’s progress Our campaign’s progress will be evaluated through handing out questioners to learners about the effectiveness of our campaign and how it has changed their perspectives on teenage pregnancy. The aim of these questioner will be based on evaluating whether our campaign has been successful or failed to reach our goal