You will agree with me that sex education has always been a contentious topic, with naysayers concerned that information could inspire experimentation and promiscuity. They warn that this will unavoidably increase rates of sexually-transmitted disease and unwanted teenage and child pregnancies. Indeed, teenage and child pregnancies ruin lives by halting educational opportunities and restricting social mobility or truly depress the individual’s – and the family’s socioeconomic situation.

Moreover, such pregnancies have more affected outcomes and higher complexity levels compared to non-teen pregnancies. This includes facts like the babies may be infected with a sexually-transmitted disease, premature delivery and babies that are small for gestational age.

However, it would be rather unreasonable to argue that too little or too much sex education is the only cause behind teenage pregnancy. Many more circumstances come into play. Some, for example, blame the economic status saying it encourages teenage pregnancies due to young girls wanting to establish a true social safety net.

The Population Services Zimbabwe (PSZ) has revealed that child pregnancies remain high at 22% in the country. The study was wholesome in that it showed that thorough data analysis is important to discover what is taking place, and, thereby, perhaps lead to an understanding of how matters can be improved.

At such a point it would be easy to quickly say that schools must offer a wide array of education programmes, a lot of systems that offer support and help to young children, their partners and their parents etc. The question naturally arises and still persists: how can schools manage to reduce teenage pregnancy rates?

It is very valuable to also note that this topic deals with a very vulnerable division of the population and. Therefore, it merits a thorough and unbiased evaluation of the circumstances that could be responsible for putting into consideration the data protection issues that researchers have to deal with.

I say this because I believe that understanding the dynamics may well guide us to the formulation of action programmes and plans that could, in turn, decrease teenage pregnancies in schools. There is still a need to address pregnancies that also involve partners that are not in school, relatives and or senior citizens.

Certainly, a lot more still needs to be done and the Education Ministry is known to have emphatically assured that the issue will be tackled for the good of our youngsters. A more excellent goal would be to attempt to further reduce all teenage pregnancies at school, or home or anywhere. Reducing teenage pregnancies is possible, however difficult it may be. Read related article