Education
Source: Zambia Daily Mail As Zambia grapples with the thorny vice of early marriages, the Ministry of Education has noted that the number of schoolgirls getting pregnant has reduced since the year 2011.
The ministry's principal planning officer Lancelot Mutale says 13,929 girls were reported pregnant in 2011 but last year 12,500 teens fell pregnant while in school.
"This means that there is a reduction. The drop-out rate is unfortunately much higher among girls than boys. In grade nine alone, there is a 5.9 percent drop-out rate for girls as compared to the 2.4 percent for boys, meaning that there is need for us to pay more attention to the education of these girls.
"In the year 2013, 12,500 girls ranging from Grade one to nine were reported pregnant but unfortunately only 4,400 were re-admitted in school in that particular year," Mr Mutale said during a national symposium on ending child marriages held in Lusaka and organised by the Ministry of Gender and Child Development from Tuesday to Friday last week.
He said 42 percent of the girls get married before they reach 18 and it is also noticed that girls, especially those living in extreme poverty and remote areas face the higher risk of early marriage and this mainly affects those without access to education.
"It is noticed that among the currently married girls, 78 percent of those that have never been married under the age of 24, were attending school. Among those out-of-school girls, 28 percent cited marriage and 19 percent cited child bearing as the main reason for having left school. We also know that poverty plays a very critical role in child marriages in Zambia.
"The majority of those getting pregnant are in between grade seven and nine. That is where we have the biggest problem and many of these do not come back to school after they get pregnant," Mr Mutale added.
He said it is proven that if girls go to school they are less likely to marry early.
"Those that have attended no school at all are in the majority that marry early. Those that go to Secondary School tend not to marry early, which is what we should be encouraging our children to do.
"In urban areas, vulnerable adolescents among the never married girls are aged seven to 10 years. In most cases urban provinces tend to do better than those that are more rural," he said.