A 17-year-old final-year Senior High School student who was driven out of her home by her guardian for getting pregnant is now a nursing mother and yearns to return to school.
Myjoyonline.com reports that she gave birth barely two weeks ago after she was sacked by her aunt with whom she stayed to go and live with her 22-year-old boyfriend.
Recounting how she ended up getting pregnant, the teenage mother said although she and her boyfriend had sex, it didn’t occur to her that it could result in pregnancy.
“The guy proposed to me in April, so he asked me to visit him at his house, and I went. The first affair he had with me, I found out the next month, May, when I didn’t have my menstruation, so I knew I was pregnant but my stomach wasn’t developing. So I thought it was a normal thing,” she told Joy Prime.
Having discovered that the romantic affair with her boyfriend has borne fruit, she was scared of disclosing it to her aunt and her grandfather, fearing they might not react to the news pleasantly.
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It took her teacher to break the news to the guardians after the teen hid it from them for five months.
“I went to the hospital after missing my menses for two months, and they told me I’m pregnant. I didn’t tell them (the parents) myself. Getting to five months, my madam said where my pregnancy is getting to, she needs to tell my parents. She first said I should tell them, but I told her I’m scared, so she should help me tell them. She called my grandpa and told him,” she said.
Truly, when it got to the notice of her guardians that instead of being in school and taking her studies seriously she engaged in sexual activity that got her pregnant, her aunt threw her out of the house and no amount of pleas could make her have mercy on the young girl.
“My aunt, who I was staying with, threw my things away. My grandpa told her that she should have patience, but she said she would not allow me in her room with the pregnancy. My grandpa went on his knees and begged, but she gave me days to go back again. She told me I should leave her house before giving birth,” she narrated.
Now that she has given birth, the young mother says she has learnt her lessons and would like to return to school to continue from where she left off. According to her, she doesn’t want this “mistake” to be the end of her bright future.
“I know I’ve made a big mistake; that’s why I was thrown out of the house. It’s a big mistake, but I need someone to help me so that I can further my education and be enlightened in the future. I want my future to be the best for me,” she appealed.
She is one of three schoolgirls featured in Joy Prime’s documentary, “Classroom Mothers”, produced by Emmanuel Dzivenu.
The documentary highlighted increasing pregnancy cases in senior high schools in the country and efforts by stakeholders to keep these pregnant girls and young mothers in school to safeguard their future.
Senior housemistress of Adidome SHS, Mercy Dzifa Afi Akwada, disclosed that her school has measures in place to ensure students who get pregnant don’t become dropouts.
“Averagely a semester, about 10 girls get pregnant. Even in these first years, as they came to school, two of them were pregnant. We were able to handle it. They have given birth, and they are back to school,” she said.
The headmistress opined that low sex education partly results in misconceptions about sexuality among school children, leading to unwanted pregnancies.
Globally, it is one of the gender-related barriers that militate against girl-child education due to the inability to continue schooling during pregnancy and after childbirth.
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