ONGWEDIVA – Ontoko Combined School in Omusati Region recorded nine cases of learners who have dropped out of school because of pregnancy barely three months after schools re-opened for the 2015 academic calendar.
The school is located in Omusati Region some 2 km South of Epalela and 40 kilometres west of Outapi.
The entire 2014 the school, with a total enrolment of almost 800 learners, had nine cases of learners that got pregnant and most disturbingly the majority of the cases occurred in the lower grades.
This school lies in an area occupied by marginalised communities particularly Ovahimba, Ovahumbi, Ovazemba, Ovandongona, and Ovangambwe.
The school principal confirmed the news but refused to shed more light on the issue and he even declined to give his name on the grounds that he is not authorised to speak to the media.
But sources at the school expressed concern about the high teenage pregnancy rate, saying this could have an adverse effect on the school’s academic performance.
“Last year alone we had nine learners that dropped out of school due to pregnancy, but in three months we already have nine learners,” said a source.
Out of desperation, the school recently instructed all female students to shave their hair because it felt that fashionable hairdos resulted in learners paying more attention to hair and attracting the opposite sex.
Sources further noted that although it is a multicultural school, 90 percent of the learners have cut or shaved their hair.
“Most learners that are pregnant now already have babies, some are mothers of two already and imagine they are in the lower grade as low as grade four to six,” revealed one of the sources.
They said the principal has already held a meeting with the parents to inform them that he will cut all the learners’ hair.
The principal has also confirmed this but still refused to share more information with this journalist though he said he is very disturbed by the pregnancy rate at the school.
A source said: “The principal has taken the arguments in writing and only five learners out of 792 refused to cut their hair due to traditional beliefs.”
The school said the main aim of having learners cut their hair is to give them a chance to come to school early because more female learners come to school very late just because they seem to be paying more attention to their hair at the expense of punctuality.
“Some learners are coming to school as late as 10h00, this is abnormal, I think the situation will be rectified if the hair is cut,” the source insisted.
(The photo, for illustration purposes, shows a teenage girl with cute, braided hairstyle that a rural school has blamed for high teenage pregnancies.)