Malawi continues to register high primary school drop outs due to teenage pregnancies and child marriages, Malawi News has learnt.
Teen pregnancies and child marriages have been perpetuated mainly by poverty and cultural practices.
A prestigious London based publication, Business Insider, earlier this month named Malawi as one of the third poorest countries in the world.
District Education Manager (Dem) for Phalombe, Hendrix Likeke said there is need for communities to be enlightened on the importance of education, especially to the girl child.
In 2016/17 academic year, 651 girls dropped out of school and in this academic year (2017/18) 558 girls dropped out of school due to pregnancies and marriages in Phalombe district alone.
“Dropouts are the order of the day here. Communities seem to value sex more than education. This is why it is not a big deal to marry off their girl-children to older men in order to solve their financial problems,” he said.
Dem for Mangochi, Joe Magombo, said early marriages and teenage pregnancies are also rampant in the district.
“It is noticeable that more girls enroll for primary school education and only a few complete it and proceed to secondary school. This is a very big issue in this district. I am blaming it on cultural practices. There is a lot of laxity on how a girl child is raised here,” he said.
Magombo also pointed out that initiation ceremonies are contributing a great deal to teenage pregnancies and child marriages.
“It seems initiation ceremonies prepare girls for marriage and when they ‘graduate’ from there, they do just that. In other cultures or areas, becoming pregnant before marriage is a taboo but here it is not a big deal,” he said.
Spokesperson for Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST), Lindiwe Chide acknowledged that teenage pregnancies are threatening the girl’s education.
She disclosed that national average for school dropouts due to teenage pregnancies is at 5.9 percent per academic year.
But Executive Director for Civil Society Education Coalition, Benedicto Kondowe said according to the assessment that his organisation carried out, dropout rate due to pregnancies is at 11 percent.
“Much as poverty is one issue which is disturbing our girls, poor protection of girls and in some instances teachers impregnating pupils are other factors,” he said.
Kondowe also pointed out that this issue should not be limited to primary schools as girls in secondary school are equally affected, citing a 2013 case of 39 girls who dropped out of school in Mchinji and 42 in Chitipa in a single academic year.
The Education Management Information Systems of 2013 says there is high school dropout rate among girls due to pregnancy, where two in every seven girls in primary school dropout due to pregnancy.
The Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) of 2015/16 indicates that Malawi has recorded an increase in teen pregnancies from 26 percent (in MDHS of 2010) to 29 percent.
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