Africa-Press – Uganda. At least 10,191 girls of school-going age have been impregnated in Alebtong District over the past four years, official data shows.
The district status report released on October 31, 2023, indicates that over 2000 teenage girls conceive annually.
While presenting the report at Alebtong District Council Hall on Tuesday, Mr David Kennedy Odongo, the LC5 chairman, said child sexual offences are among the critical issues affecting the development of the area.
According to Mr Odongo, the issue of teenage pregnancy and child marriage has been worrisome since 2019.
“The district registered 2,549 teenage pregnancies in 2022, 2,902 in 2021, 2,819 and 1,921 in 2020,” he noted.
The district chairman said that if nothing is urgently done to mitigate sexual abuse against children, more girls will miss out on education.
“When girls get pregnant at an early age, it poses a big threat to the nation because we shall have a disease burden,” he said.
“Also, some of these girls may not have the opportunity to continue with their normal education and will therefore demand from the state other than giving to the state in the long run.”
Mr Odongo said child sexual offences should not be taken lightly if the government is to prepare girls and children for a better tomorrow.
“Police and the government need not ignore this predicament. We also need technical advice from the police because they are the consumers of this information,” the district chairman said.
“They [law enforcers] need not sit on the information. They need to get the data and present it to the district with recommendations and advice from police. At times we may sit on these problems and yet they can be solved collectively.”
Ms Dillis Faith Aol, the Alebtong Inspector of Schools, blamed the problem on poverty, which causes girls to drop out of school.
“Poverty among the parents has always been the major challenge because they tend to complain of lack of school fees and yet they are supposed to provide necessities for the learners to be in school,” she told this newspaper in an interview on October 31, 2023.
She further said that through the engagement meetings, parents are being sensitised about the importance of education.
“We teach them about agriculture and so many other money generating schemes so that they can keep their children in school,” she said.
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