Zimbabwe: 16 Pregnant Pupils Fail to Write Grade Seven Exams

1 October 2024
The Herald (Harare)

Remember Deketeke recently in Mbire

AT LEAST 16 pupils at Monozi Primary School in Mbire District last week failed to sit for the Grade Seven Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) examinations after falling pregnant.

This was revealed by a teacher at Monozi Primary School last week during the first session of mobile one-stop centre engagements in the areas.

Mobile one-stop centres are part of a broader effort to create grassroots resilient mechanisms and reduce inequalities by increasing access to comprehensive Gender Based Violence (GBV) services in Zimbabwe.

The programme roped in various partners to offer services during the community outreaches.

"We submit monthly reports on school dropouts to the district. As of late, 16 seventh-grade girls this year failed to sit for their Zimsec examinations and we have determined that parents in this community do not value a girl's education," said the teacher.

"We have also noticed that the girl child is being abused, especially those at puberty stage. Even if we get a case reported of abuse, you find that parents are going behind our backs and getting payment tokens from abusers and life goes on."

She added that amid a severe drought, parents were increasingly trading their girl children for grain.

Chipita Village head, Ms Rudo Chidembo said such acts have been prevalent in the village and the mobile one-stop centres will help in ending teenage pregnancies, early marriages and sexual abuse.

"Children remain victims to such acts and I was sad to hear about the girls who failed to sit for their final examinations," she said.

"These mobile one-stop centres have come at the right time to make sure that they completely deal with the rise of teenage pregnancies, sexual abuse and early marriages and I hope the Zimbabwe Gender Commission and the United Nations Development Fund put permanent structures so that we end such ills."

Some of the services on offer during mobile community outreaches include birth registry services from the Department of the Civil Registry, clinical services offered by the Ministry of Health and Child Care officers, and legal services offered by various partners such as Musasa project and others.

Read the original article on The Herald.

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