Minister Kaducu tasks school heads to end teenage marriage

The State Minister for Primary Education, Ms Joyce Moriku Kaducu, has tasked all school heads and teachers at all levels to “fight hard” and end teenage and early pregnancies among school-going children.

Ms Kaducu said both teenage pregnancies and early marriages are abuse to all stakeholders, arguing that teachers need to be on the forefront of the fight in schools.

“You teachers need to be role models to our young girls in your schools. Help them achieve their dreams in future. Teenage pregnancy is at alarming rate and we need to stand together and end the vice,” she said.

According to the minister, teachers need to guide female learners on the right time and age to get married.

Ms Kaducu said the government, through her ministry launched a campaign to stop child marriages, prevent teenage pregnancies and to promote good parents.

She made the remarks on Friday during the awarding ceremony of certificates to 33 secondary school teachers who completed phase one of training at Canon Apollo PTC in Fort Portal City in western Uganda.

During lockdown, a number of school going children were reported to have been impregnated or married off, sparking public debate on whether pregnant learners should be allowed back in school.

The Intergovernmental Authority Development (IGAD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education And Sports and the German cooperation (GIZ-BMZ) through the IGAD-GIZ teachers training initiative trained secondary teachers from refugee host districts in Uganda.

The training is aimed at helping teachers deliver quality education on displacement affected communities. The teachers were from the districts of Kamwenge, Kyegerwa, Isingiro and Kikuube.

Minister Kaducu tasked the trained teachers to use the acquired skills to improve learning in their respective schools.

“People want to see a difference in you and I am optimistic that you will improve the learning because you have been given enough knowledge and skills,” she said.

The head of IGAD mission in Uganda, Ms Lucy Daxbacher, said they had trained 100 teachers during the first phase of the training.

“The purpose of this training is to improve quality education in the refugee host communities because the refugees also have the right to access quality education,” she said.

The four-month training that started in August 2021 equipped teachers with pedagogical, social-psychological, ICT competencies and life skills.