We should focus on education at all costs

It was recently reported that female students going to study overseas are given contraceptive implants that will prevent them from falling pregnant for up to three years.
Whether the government can force students to have these implants is debatable. Morals and ethics are left to the individual concerned. Pupils need to be educated on ethics and the importance of studying before engaging in sexual activities. Pupils are still getting pregnant even at primary schools, amidst various attempts from government to stop this. Together we have to overcome this pupil pregnancy and allow our children to focus on education at all costs, or else lose valuable leaders of our country.
It comes down to basic ongoing education and awareness of early pregnancy amongst pupils, starting at primary school level. Pupils have a choice; to study ’til the very end or destroy their lives and futures. Thus the call from MEC for health Sibongiseni Dhlomo and his department should not be to prevent pupils from getting pregnant but from pupils becoming aware of their responsibilities as future leaders.
This drastic step by the KwaZulu-Natal government is an insult to some of our students who receive full bursaries, especially from rural areas, who fall pregnant whilst studying overseas. As a former educationist and chairperson of a school governing body my concern has always been the high rate of pregnancy in our schools. For the many pregnant pupils, they have to now rely on child support grants to assist them when the child is born.
What about the role of males in pregnancy, seeing it takes two to tango? Or, are only woman responsible for their bodies, even in pregnancy? It takes a man to make a woman pregnant and not the other way around. The male gender cannot be silent when it comes to prevention of teenage pregnancies.
I have always opposed the distribution of condoms at school level, as I felt it was a “ticking time bomb”. Education first and foremost and reaching out to all pupils and making sex education and other social ills part of the curriculum, will help to reduce pupil pregnancy and motivate our children to focus on taking studying seriously.
Dhlomo and the Kwa-Zulu Natal government needs to conduct ongoing workshops and youth outreach programmes and engage in discussions to identify solutions facing youth. This goes beyond the need to give pupils studying overseas , free contraceptive implants to prevent pregnancy. We all have a role to play in our children’s education.
COUNCILLOR BRIAN JAYANATHAN
Tongaat