Education
(a) What is the current rate of pregnancies among school-going girls and (b) how have the current statistics added to the school drop-out rate?
My department has informed me of the following:
(a) The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) receives reports on the number of learners who fall pregnant a year in arrears, via the Annual School Survey (ASS).
Schools report the total number of learner pregnancies for the previous year in the ASS (e.g. for the 2023 ASS, a school will report on pregnancies that happened during the 2022 academic year).
We currently have figures up to the 2024 ASS, however, please note that these are reported pregnancies. Some pregnancies are not necessarily reported to the Department and the learner leaves the system without informing school. The latest 2024 ASS figures indicate 2 056 learners fell pregnant in 2023, which is less than 0,5% of the total number of teenage girls in our schools.
(b) The WCED cannot provide an accurate figure for the drop-out rate specifically due to pregnancy.
Some learners do not necessarily report that they are pregnant, and learners who are pregnant may drop out for a reason other than pregnancy, such as various societal issues, ill-health, relocation to another province or TVET college, or other reasons.
Some learners leave school when pregnant, but return to school at a later date.
Our priority is to support learners who fall pregnant so that they can continue their education and complete their matric qualification.
