KAMPALA, UGANDA: President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni intends to engage religious leaders and the Cabinet on the fate of child mothers and pregnant learners.
Museveni disclosed this at the 36th National Resistance Movement (NRM) anniversary celebration at Kololo Independence Grounds on Wednesday under the theme, “Celebrating the 36th NRM victory day: A call to duty for all compatriots to contribute towards Uganda’s socio-economic transformation journey”.
In his address, Museveni noted the ongoing debate is whether pregnant learners should be allowed to report back to school or not.
“The children who got pregnant, we are going to discuss with the Bishops and other religious leaders. We shall find a solution for them. There are some arguments, should the child go to school with visible pregnancy? That one I will discuss with Cabinet first and other people,” Museveni said in part.
He added that the cabinet will also discuss other aspects like how to handle breastfeeding learners.
Museveni’s remarks come a few days after Bishop James Ssebagala of Mukono Diocese directed teachers in Church of Uganda-founded schools to block pregnant or breastfeeding girls from their institutions. The Bishop said that although it is good for parents to support girls who are pregnant, it was not morally upright to allow them to sit in class with other children.
However, the Ministry of Education and Sports insists that it is a government directive that all children should return to school whether pregnant or breastfeeding. Schools officially re-opened fully on January 10th, 2022 after a two–year lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December 2021, the Vice President Jessica Alupo presented a status report to parliament on teenage pregnancy in the country. The report showed that 354,736 teenage pregnancies were registered in 2020 while 295,219 teenage pregnancies were registered between January to early September 2021.
Museveni also criticized international media agencies as unserious and only focusing on Ugandan girls getting pregnant during the lockdown. “When they talk about the lockdown they say…girls got pregnant in lockdown. That’s all they are talking about. Being pregnant is not dying; you fellows…Aljazeera, BBC…please. Can you not understand that a young girl being pregnant is a complication but not dying,” Museveni said.
President said that Uganda succeeded in ensuring that many people do not die due to COVID-19 like other countries and that this is commendable.
He commended Ugandans for adhering to the set Standard Operating Procedures- SOPs for the past two years during the lockdown, saying that this has helped the country fight coronavirus well.
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