The parliamentary portfolio committee on basic education has instructed the Limpopo department of education to explain why it did not have information about a pregnant 16-year-old pupil who gave birth in a school toilet.
The provincial department this week confirmed that a pupil gave birth on Monday, July 22, in a school toilet.
The department confirmed that a Grade 10 pupil gave birth in the toilet at Molautsi Secondary School, in Blood River, outside Polokwane in Limpopo.
The grade 10 pupil was alone in the toilets at the time when she went into labour.
The 16-year-old, who was reportedly seven months pregnant, delivered the baby without any help.
Provincial MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya said “in cases of such circumstances, there are measures in place to provide support to pregnant learners through out the schooling season.
These include, to appraise the life orientation educator for further support, inform the learner support agent and to inform the educators on the learner’s status, among
other measures.
“We further want to acknowledge that through our curriculum and other extra curricular activities, such as advocacy campaigns and comprehensive sexuality education, which we have initiated as a department, we have advanced means to raise awareness on teenage pregnancy,” she said.
Lerule-Ramakhanya appealed “to the media and the public in general to grant the learner and her family the necessary privacy during this time”.
The MEC said the department will dispatch a team of experts to the school to provide psychosocial support in due course.
However, committee chairperson Joy Maimela said “it is concerning that such an incident happened in a school toilet.
“It is even more worrying that the learner delivered the baby without assistance.
“It is dangerous for both the mother and the child.”
She urged the Limpopo Department of Education to investigate whether the school was aware that the pupil was pregnant and, if so, why the information was not captured on the system.
“The committee noted that the provincial education department had not been notified that the learner was pregnant and that no such information about the learner’s pregnancy existed in the school management systems, as should be the case.
“The committee would like to appeal to schools to follow the rules, especially when a life can be in danger.
“We appeal to all nine provincial education departments and schools to continue raising awareness of teenage pregnancy through the curriculum and other extracurricular activities,” Maimela said.
