The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education is enlisting the services of the South African Police to try and end teenage pregnancies which have been identified as one of the reasons for girls dropping out of school.
The high dropout rate was one of the issues raised in the State Of the Province Address debate where Democratic Alliance Chief Whip Imran Keeka revealed that more than 82 457 pupils dropped out of school last year. “We don’t know where they are,” he said.
Speaking to Sunday Tribune on the sidelines of the department’s budget vote by MEC Sipho Hlomuka this week, Head of Department Nkosinathi Ngcobo, said while they had an agreement with the police, they had decided to now make greater use of it.
He expressed the department’s concern over the dropout rate noting how the rural areas were affected by the problem.
Ngcobo said 25 906 pupils left school in the first quarter of 2024 when compared to the same period in 2023 when 32 487 had dropped out- a 20% decrease.
“We recognise the learner dropout and are very concerned about it and while there is a marked decrease we are not celebrating because one dropout is one too many,” Ngcobo said.
He said while there were other reasons behind the high dropout rate, teen pregnancy was one of the leading causes for this.
“We have found that in some instances learners who drop out are as a result of getting impregnated by older men through a practice of ukuthwala and this is where we seek the involvement of among other role players, the police because there could be grounds for statutory rape,” said Ngcobo.
He indicated that they would be involving the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs as the issue of ukuthwala appeared to be steeped into tradition.
Ukuthwala is a form of abduction that involves kidnapping a girl with the intention of forcing her into marriage.
According to Ngcobo the dropout was worrying because of the negative implications it had including: limiting the young people’s career prospects, blunting the country’s human resource capital with a risk of more unskilled youth owing to dropping out and traps families and communities in a cycle of poverty.
King Cetshwayo District had emerged as the area with the highest number of pupils who left school.
South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (SADTU) KZN Secretary Nomarashiya Caluza welcomed the move to involve the police, but stressed that the police would need to take the cases seriously.
“It is very important to attend to the matter urgently as it will send a clear and unambiguous message to offenders that they will be dealt with,” she stressed.
Caluza said that they would be calling for the individuals who have been involved in the ukuthwala practice to be on the sex offenders list, a move which she said, would ensure that such individuals are properly dealt with and do not commit similar offences again.
She agreed on the importance of a buy-in from traditional leadership as the practice was found in rural areas under the custodianship of amakhosi.
Sunday Tribune