A TOTAL of 22 girls at Kyafukuma Day Secondary School in Solwezi district have this year alone dropped out of school after falling pregnant.
Kyafukuma Day Secondary School located about 30 kilometers from the Solwezi central business district was upgraded to secondary school status in 2016.
School head teacher Willy Chinofya said from January to date, a total of 22 girls from the school which has an enrolment of about 160 pupils have fallen pregnant and dropped out of school.
Mr. Chinofya has attributed the problem to lack of a boarding school in the area because girls from distant places leave their parents homes and are forced to rent houses in the nearby villages making them vulnerable because there is no one to closely monitor their activities.
“We are aware that the New Dawn Government has prioritised education and we have really received the message of free education very well but we have a problem at our school because from January to date, there are about 22 girls who have dropped out after falling pregnant,” he said.
This came to light when Solwezi Central Member of Parliament Stafford Mulusa in company of newly-appointed Solwezi District Commissioner Liki Mulofwa visited the school at the weekend.
He has appealed to the new dawn government to consider upgrading the school to a boarding secondary school status by building hostel facilities to secure the future of the girl child.
Mr. Chinofya told the lawmaker that once the school is upgraded to a boarding secondary school, there will be fewer cases of child pregnancies because the children will be closely monitored by school authorities.
“Our vision is to have this school become a boarding school because we have a problem of high girls drop outs and young girls being married off and so we thought as a school if it is turned into a boarding school, it will help reduce on the number of pregnancies that we are facing,” he said.
Mr. Chinofya has bemoaned the high number of girls dropping out of school due to pregnancies every year.
He also appealed the area Member of Parliament to consider building more staff houses at the school.
Mr. Chinofya said the school has 13 teachers but there is no adequate accommodation to cater for all while the houses are in a deplorable state.
He said many teachers are interested to teach at the school but lack of accommodation coupled with a bad road network is hindering them.
And Mr. Mulusa who is also Government Chief Whip said he will engage the provincial education office over the matter.
Mr. Mulusa also said Government will look at the possibilities of upgrading the school to boarding secondary school status especially with the increase in the allocation of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) from K1.6 million to K25.7 million starting next year.
“These problems that you have mentioned are not new and with the increased CDF and the political will that is there, everything is possible,” he said.
Mr. Mulusa also said the road leading to the area will be worked on as the council has just bought additional earth moving equipment for roads rehabilitation in the district.
