The department of education disclosed the alarming escalation of teenaged pregnancy that made headlines last year. More than 72 000 girls aged between 13 and 19 did not attend school because they were pregnant.
Official figures from the provincial departments of education reveal that 5 868 learners in KwaZulu-Natal and 1 748 in the Free State fell pregnant last year. About 5 000 pregnancies were reported in Limpopo, while Gauteng recorded 2 542 in the past two years.
What does the future hold for these girls and their offspring?
As an educator, you cannot help thinking: What can I do about all this? Is it within my powers to change the thinking of the learners I teach?
But this is the tip of the iceberg. The pressing need for some kind of action plan becomes clear when we examine the repercussions of teenaged pregnancy.
Luckily, we do not have to revert to vague supposition to paint this future scenario. Steven Levitt, writer of the international bestseller Freakonomics, does it for us. Levitt recently received the John Bates Clark medal, awarded every two years to the best American economist under 40. He uses the tools of the economist to make sense of the real world. His recent research will enable us to understand why teenage pregnancy in South Africa in 2006/07 could lead to a massive wave of future crime.
In his book he relates the events in 1966 when Ceausescu became the communist dictator of Romania. In order to boost the population, he banned abortion. Until 1966 Romania had one of the most liberal abortion policies in the world. Now abortion was forbidden and contraception and sex education were banned. Ceausescu achieved what he had set out to do – in one year the birth rate doubled. Unlike the children born before the ban, this new army of children lived miserable lives; they were under-achievers at school, struggled to make a living and many of them became criminals.
Next Levitt explores the connection between the abortion laws in Romania and crime in the US. In 1989, crime was at its peak in the United States. The crime rate, however, made a complete turnabout a year later and there was no obvious explanation for it. It was beyond belief because everyone expected it to continue soaring. Levitt was able to prove, with statistics and data, that the sudden crime-drop was not because of tougher gun control laws, a less profitable drug market, increased policing or capital punishment.
Levitt was able to come up with a surprise answer. The dramatic drop in crime was the result of the US Supreme Court’s ruling in 1973 that extended legalised abortion to the entire country. This meant that about 1,6-million American women who fell pregnant each year were not having those babies.
The following quote from Freakanomics illustrates the relationship between legalised abortion and the sudden and unexpected drop in crime.
“One study showed that the typical child who went unborn in the earliest years of legalised abortion would have been 50% more likely than average to live in poverty; he would have also been 60% more likely to grow up with just one parent. These two factors – childhood poverty and a single-parent household – are among the strongest predictors that a child will have a criminal future. Growing up in a single-parent home roughly doubles a child’s propensity to commit crime. So does having a teenage mother.”
Another study has shown that low maternal education is the single most powerful factor leading to criminality.
This is a chilling revelation. The above passage could be speaking about the growing numbers of teenaged girls in South Africa who are carrying babies, who have every chance of living in poverty and swelling the numbers of criminals on our streets when they grow up.
Furthermore, HIV infection and the unavailability of ARVs has left us with a legacy of 3,4-million orphans. What chance do these children have of leading fulfilling lives or filling their stomachs when they are hungry or their hearts when they are empty?
What is the solution in our schools and what is the role of the educator in the face of this future scenario?
Education is one answer and we can provide that. The educator cannot just be doing a job, but must ensure that each learner is equipped to enter adulthood, not as a drug dealer or a beggar or a prostitute, but as a man or woman with a potential to make a living and provide for a family.
But this cannot be done without highly qualified educators, and the wholehearted support of government, the education department, business, society and parents.
Every child has a right to a school that provides top facilities and equal education. The township kids compete in debates every year with their private-school counterparts, but they offer no challenge to their opponents. For me, this is a clear indication of unequal opportunities that have to be ironed out if we wish to address the problems of HIV and teenage pregnancy.
Joan Dommisse is an HIV trainer and former teacher