Cases of teen pregnancies and child marriages are decreasing in Kwale after the county government introduced a scholarship programme to help girls transition smoothly to secondary school.
Previously, Kwale ranked among counties with the highest cases of teen pregnancy and early marriage.
Governor Salim Mvurya had said that because of lack of school fees, most of the girls, even if they are bright, would not make it to high school.
The Elimu ni Sasa Scholarship, a Sh400 million programme, pays school fees for all students in Kwale who score above 350 marks in their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination.
“Before this, there were girls who performed well in their national examinations but then the environment was tempting because they would stay home for a long period. But the Elimu ni Sasa programme has given them room for immediate transition to secondary school,” he said.
The programme was one of the solutions to teen pregnancies, he said, with Kwale among counties with the highest numbers after Kilifi. More girls than boys are considered by the programme, he said.
“If you look at the numbers, especially the ones we are sponsoring, it is almost fifty-fifty, so teen pregnancy is still a challenge but we are making progress,” he said.
The numbers had started going down when the coronavirus pandemic hit the country and schools had to close, leaving students at their parents’ homes for nine months.
“Right now, with the awareness and the inspiration, there is some hope it is going down, except for when now we have this gap when schools closed, it became another area of a challenge but we are working towards it and we are making progress and we have more girls in school,” he said.
Some parents in large poor families marry off their daughters to wealthy men to earn money.
Zabibu Sidi, a Kwale student who recently completed Form Four at Kabare Girls High School, said that were it not for the county scholarship, she would not have joined secondary school and would have been married off by now.
“Without such an initiative, I would not have joined high school and my parents would have married me off to get money, and they were ready to do anything so that my younger siblings could have a better life,” said Ms Zabibu, the fourth-born in her family of five.
Kwale County Director of Education Martin Cheruiyot said even as culture, religion and economic issues remain key factors in teen pregnancies in Kwale, the scholarship has helped more girls go to school.
This had reduced the number of child marriages among schoolgirls, and a majority now are able to join boarding schools.
“Boarding school seems to be a more stable environment for learners, because when they are out of school, they get influenced into drugs, premarital sex and other cultural issues that may make them lose their focus,” he said.
He also credited other organisations working in communities in the county providing girls with basic needs so that they do not have to take money from men who want to exploit them sexually.
Data from the county education department shows that 90 per cent of the schools that reported cases of girls becoming pregnant are day schools.
Secondary schools reported about half the number of cases reported in primary schools.
“For primary schools, the environment is not conducive enough to fill such gaps and that is why we still have more cases of those children in primary school being the most affected,” he said. BY DAILY NATION
