The girls are among the hundreds who fell pregnant over the
past few months of the lockdown and are struggling to go back to school fearing
stigma and discrimination.
According to recent statistics from Mpilo Central Hospital,
one of the two major health institutions in the city, children aged 12 to 16
now account for about 30 percent of deliveries.
Treasury recently set aside $123 million for the provision
of psycho-social support for pupils who fall pregnant, a move that reaffirms
the Government’s position on the need to protect the rights of the girl child.
The Government’s position is that the previous provision
that allowed school authorities to expel pregnant pupils was discriminatory to
the girl child.
Presenting the 2021 National Budget late last month, the
Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube, said the
allocation would ensure the implementation of the new provision. He said the
Government now allows for non-exclusion of pregnant girls in schools and to
ensure observance of this provision, psycho-social support will be enhanced
hence the allocation of $123 million towards that.
Prior to amendment of the Education Act, school authorities
could expel a girl for falling pregnant but, in the event that a school boy was
responsible, he was spared, which was seen as discriminatory against the girl
child.
The budget allocation follows the approval in August by
President Mnangagwa of the amendment of the Education Act.
Zimbabwe is in dire need of psychiatrists and improved
mental health facilities to address the growing trend of mental disorders
affecting more than 20 percent of the population.
Statistics show that there are less than 20 psychiatrists
to cater for everyone and in Bulawayo there is only one hospital designated to
deal with mental issues.
Presenting her budget debate report in Parliament on
Thursday, the chairperson of the Primary and Secondary Education Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee, Ms Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga said she was grateful
the education allocation will address some problems being faced by pupils
countrywide.
It will take willing school authorities to bring back the
pregnant pupils to school which may be their only way out of poverty and underdevelopment,
she said, adding that figures released so far could just be a tip of the
iceberg as many schools seem to have lost a number of girls during the long
Covid-19-induced break.
“I must say that we are going to have a baby boom in 2021
because of what happened with lockdown. We are having a lot of reports of young
girls that have gotten pregnant and the psychological support is important,”
said Ms Misihairabwi- Mushonga.
“As we speak right now, in Bulawayo we have had two girls
that have committed suicide because the psycho-social support does not exist.
“We are happy that we have $123 million and the discussion
now is, how do we create the necessary support system to ensure that those kids
are supported.” She recently said she was working with development partners to
raise funds and host a massive baby shower kind of a programme to help pregnant
pupils with coping skills, advice and how they can pick themselves up and
continue with school so they have a brighter future.
Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga emphasised the importance of
sourcing sanitary wear for girls as a way of keeping them in school.
She said the sanitary wear allocation was inadequate,
although it will go a long way in providing pads and panties for schoolgirls.
“With the amount of money that we have like $500m, let us
try and do international, regional and local tender because some of the
sanitary wear that would work are sanitary panties because the majority of our
girls do not have panties. Under normal circumstances when they are not having
periods, they can run around without panties,” she said.
“I could be standing here without a panty; you would never
know but what happens is that when they are having their periods, they actually
have to have a panty on. If you give them these disposable ones, you are
creating problems of lack of sustainability because you cannot sustain it with
the amount of money that we have right now.”
She added that water and sanitation challenges especially
in Bulawayo should be addressed.
“The Hon Minister needs to deal with the Bulawayo issue and
the rural areas and we need to focus on how we can do the linkages between DDF
and prioritise the issue of borehole drilling. We did not see anything around
Zimsec and yet we have a lot of kids that may have to rewrite because of the
problems that we had around Covid,” she said. Chronicle
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