Alarming figures of pregnancies in schools

Unwanted pregnancies are more common for students living at home

The number of pregnant girls in schools increases year after year. According to a survey conducted by the ministry of public health last year, the figures rose from 877 in 2009 to 2424 in 2015. “The number of pregnant girls in schools continues to increase. Today, the provisional number is already superior to the last year’s”, says Dr.

Georges Gahungu from the UN Population Fund Agency -UNFPA Burundi. He says that the UNFPA is trying to widely inform about the danger of the increasing number of pregnancies in schools. “We hope that all stakeholders should be involved in fighting against that threat in schools”, he says.

Dr. Gahungu says that provincial and communal directors in charge of education have been trained on how to stop that terrible danger in schools.  “We have already started with “zero pregnancy” campaign in schools. We have found that the students living at home are more affected than those staying in boarding schools”, says Gahungu.  The first are more tempted to have sex with no protection.

Sadique Niyonkuru, in charge of information and communication in the national health program reproduction in the ministry of public health says the ministry is aware of the alarming figures and that two main activities are conducted to tackle the issue. “We try to interest the youth in the games set up in health centers called “friends of youths” to improve the quality of services offered to young people so that they may ask for detailed information about sex”, he says.

Niyonkuru also says sensitization to sexual health education has been inserted in the new programs of the fundamental school for 8th and 9th graders. “We also plan to include courses on sexual health education in primary schools and establish other extracurricular modules”, he says.