The Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, told parliamentarians here yesterday that the Fifth Phase Government will not stand by and let unscrupulous men cajole secondary girls and get them pregnant in the process.
Minister Mwalimu directed all development and community officers at the regional and district levels to ensure culprits who get school girls pregnant are arraigned. “I want to assure you members of parliament that the government will take stern legal measures against men who will get school children pregnant.
There are a lot of mature women out there. We will not take this matter lightly,” she explained.
School girl pregnancies is one of most critical and rapidly growing social challenges painting a gloomy picture to the realization of the girl child right to education in the country.
The minister was responding to a basic question from Ms Janet Mbene (Ileje – CCM) who wanted to know if the government will provide assistance in building a boarding secondary school for girls in her constituency with contributions from the public.
Ms Mbene said her constituency does not have a boarding secondary school for girls, causing them to face a myriad of challenges including high costs for parents who have to enrol their girls in other regions as well as challenges faced by the girls while travelling to school.
She said some students are unable to complete their studies due to the huge costs and sometimes get cajoled into sexual relations which in most cases end up with the girls falling pregnant and dropping out of school.
Earlier, while responding to the same legislator’s basic question, deputy minister of State, President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government) Mr Suleiman Jaffo said the government set aside 798m/- in the 2015/16 financial year for rehabilitation of four schools infrastructures including Msomba, Luswisi, Itale and Bupigu in Ileje.
While in the next financial year 2016/17, more than 130m/- has been set aside for rehabilitation of Ngulilo Secondary School’s infrastructure in the district council.
“From the district council’s revenue, it has set aside 60m/- for rehabilitation of teachers’ houses, classrooms, desks and construction of pit latrines,” deputy minister Jaffo explained.
He said Ileje district needs 819 primary school teachers, which currently has only 567 primary school teachers with a shortage of 252, while for secondary school the need is for 156 science teachers, against the current number of 61 available, however he noted that the district has a surplus of Arts teachers -- 105.
“The government plans to employ 35,411 teachers, who graduated in 2013/14 and some of these teachers will be deployed to Ileje district,” Mr Jaffo said. He also assured legislator Mbene that his ministry is ready to safeguard school girl’s child through building the boarding school and putting in use a vocational training institute build in the district.
In addition, the deputy minister for Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Eng Stella Manyanya, directed that since the Vocational training institute was under an NGO, all process should be followed to hand it over to the district council
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