S. African President Zuma urges schools to address teenage pregnancy

South African President Jacob Zuma on Friday urged schools in the country to address the troubling phenomenon of teenage pregnancies among learners.

Over the years, teenage pregnancy has had dire consequences for many people, especially women who had to drop out of school in order to raise children; a task for which they were never ready both financially and emotionally, Zuma said at the Learn Without Fear Rally in Soweto, Johannesburg.

"Thus teenage pregnancy has robbed too many of our citizens of a career and a bright future," the president noted.

In other words, it has condemned many of South African people to a life of poverty and unemployability as well as the resultant dependence on social grants, he said.

"It is for this reason that you must work out an elaborate programme aimed at discouraging school children from early indulgence in sexual activity," said Zuma.

"I believe that you will make a great impact in this regard if you discourage each other as peers in support of government's efforts," he added.

Abstinence and self-discipline are the most effective ways to deal with teenage pregnancy which has dramatically negative economic implications for the country, Zuma noted.

Young people should not rush into serious relationships when they are still too young to even understand the consequences, said Zuma.

He warned that the prevalence of HIV and Aids as well other sexually transmitted diseases and infections among learners resulting from early indulgence in sexual activity "is thus a cause for concern for us as the ANC (African National Congress) and government".

The latest survey by Statistics South Africa has revealed that teenage pregnancy has been on the rise since 2011 and more than 99,000 teenagers fell pregnant in 2013.

The government launched prevention and sexual health programmes in schools recently. The uThekela municipality in KwaZulu-Natal Province has introduced a program to give grants to those who can prove that they are virgins. But women's rights activists have criticised this program as being ridiculous, arguing that being sexually active and seeking education have nothing to do with each other.

South Africa is home to 6.4 million HIV positive people. According to the medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF), 17.9 percent of South Africa's adult population was HIV positive. Women in the country are also disproportionately affected by the virus, MSF said. Endit