The issue of teenage pregnancy is not new in South Africa, and for some time time, no laws were considered to put an end to this issue. The Education Department has now decided to create a policy in an effort to act in the best interest of teenagers affected by this.
The Department of Basic Education has introduced a policy for schools to go and report to the police should a girl younger than 16 fall pregnant, if they are impregnated by someone older than them.
The new Basic Education pregnancy policy will be implemented from January next year.
According to Stats SA, 34 587 babies were born to girls aged 17 and younger in 2020.
“This violation of the rights of the girl in our schools and should be a punishable offense and there’s no doubt about it,” said SADTU General Secretary, Mugwena Maluleke.
Maluleke confirmed that what is happening now it is that the policy is now linked with the law that has always been there to protect children.
Maluleke further mentioned that there will be a task team or sub council that will be responsible for such issues.
NAPTOSA’s Basil Manuel agreed that the aim of this new rule it is protect the pupils, but there are a lot of layers teachers will have to deal with.
Teachers need training and advocacy to deal with this matter, especially school principals.
Police also need to play their part in doing follow-ups on all cases that are reported.
Manuel wrapped up by saying:
If you don’t have the follow up on the support of various resources such as counsellors then this is another policy on paper. So whist we support it we will also be knocking on the door of the department to say how do we give life to this policy?
Got any questions or corrections regarding this post? kindly drop a comment below and we will respond to it as soon as possible.
Please help others by sharing this post on any social media below.
Share this post with your Friends:
