A study by the National Statistics Institute (INE) revealed that more than half of the girls in Cabo Delgado province between the ages of 15 and 19 have already been pregnant. The education sector wants to change this scenario, which is detrimental to the teaching and learning process.

It refers to Lusa (via Sapo)The average number of children for each woman in the country fell to 4.9, the lowest in 25 years, according to the Demographic and Health Survey (IDS), presented on August 24 by INE.

The document notes that 36% of adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 have already been pregnant and 7.5% are currently pregnant, compared to 29.3% and 8.2% in the IDS carried out in 2011, respectively. However, 55.31% of adolescents aged 15 to 19 in Cabo Delgado province have already been pregnant, the highest figure in the country.

The Provincial Director of Education in Cabo Delgado, Ivaldo Quincardete, admits that "unfortunately" the province does not have good indicators.

"What is happening, something curious, is that, unfortunately, we have some schools where the girls become pregnant - because we now allow pregnant girls to study, they continue to study normally - they are studying, but the children are outside the school grounds with a minor, with a nanny, taking care of the baby, who is seven or eight years old, and sometimes we realize that they are not studying," she acknowledged.

With this in mind, the plan now is to get mothers to alternate school hours between the people looking after the children. "In the opposite period, if she studies in the afternoon, then she leaves that girl, the nanny, to look after her daughter, to study in the morning, or vice versa."

On the other hand, the sector is concerned about the illiteracy rate in the province, the highest percentage of which is among women.

"I say this with great sorrow. Almost 70% women can't read and write, that's our challenge. We've been working hard to reduce this rate," she lamented, noting the weight of the challenge because the population is constantly on the move. "Sometimes it's not easy to really concentrate so that we can make our fellow citizens literate."

Currently, Cabo Delgado province has around 824 schools and around 190 are still closed.

Last year there were 596,000 pupils, from first to 12th grade, and in the current 2023 school year there are 671,000 pupils, with a total of 730,000 pupils expected in 2024.

According to the official, "the needs are very great" and "Cabo Delgado, outside of the situation it is unfortunately experiencing due to terrorism, was already a province with a deficit in the number of classrooms".

The survey carried out in 2020 pointed to the need for 2,222 more classrooms across the province "to get rid of children studying outdoors under trees" and "around 37,000 double desks to get rid of children sitting on the ground".

In 2021, Cabo Delgado had around 96,000 displaced students, a figure that fell in 2023 to 40,000.