By Michael Gwarisain Bulawayo
A few years ago, Vuzu Sex parties made headlines in Bulawayo Metropolitan province as young people of school-going age engaged in various forms of indecent behavior including sexual orgies, drug and substance abuse amongst other ills. For Simangalisiwe Ndlovu* (19), from Gwabalanda in Bulawayo, attending these parties was easy since both her parents stay out of the country and there was no parental supervision at home.
Her parents work in South Africa and Simangalisiwe lives with her two siblings, her younger brother who is 15 and 11 year old sister who is still in primary school. Her parents would hardly return home to check on them, and this gave her the freedom to experiment and do all kinds of stuff without fear of rebuke. Unfortunately, Simangalisiwe had to drop out of school in 2022 after she fell pregnant at the age of 17. She says there was an incident at a Vuzu party in one of the suburbs where she was drugged and taken advantage of. She doesn’t know the father of her child.
I am now regretting my actions,” says Simangalisiwe. “Had I waited and not taken part in these parties, I am sure I would be somewhere in life right now.”
She is picking up the pieces and hopes to return to school soon. The Zimbabwean government through Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) or Guidance and counseling component, has introduced a school re-entry program for girls who might have dropped out of school due to pregnancy.
“I want to go back to school and write my Ordinary Level examinations. I hope to pass and be able to look after my child,” added Simangalisiwe.
The prevalence of child-headed families in Zimbabwe has given room to numerous vices such as child marriages, early pregnancies, unwanted and unintended pregnancies, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and new HIV infections, especially in girls and young women.
Data from the 2022 Population and Housing Census show that nationally, Zimbabwe has 51.0 percent of household being headed by girls and 49.0 percent being headed by boys. Bulawayo province has the highest rate of child-headed families in Zimbabwe, with census data showing that an estimated 1.3 percent of the households in Bulawayo being headed by children. 58 percent of households in Bulawayo are headed by girls and 42.0 percent are headed by boys.
The biggest contributor to the high prevalence of child-headed families in Zimbabwe is migration as parents move beyond boarders to work for their families. The 2022 census accounted for 73,190 persons who emigrated from Bulawayo province.
Nonsikelelo Ndlovu, the Principal Educational Psychologist for Bulawayo Province in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) said diaspora parenting was a major contributor to the high unintended pregnancies and school dropouts in the province.
“As we all know, despite being capacitated, there are challenges that we facing as a city. We have got children who are having parents in the diaspora who are not monitored at home. We have children who stay in child-headed households and all of these children lack parental supervision in a way that also contributes to the misbehavior,” said Ndlovu.
So many girls in Bulawayo province have been affected by the migration trend and in most cases ended up dropping out of school due to early unintended pregnancies and early marriages.
To capacitate schools to better deal with the surging cases of pregnancies and school dropouts, the province is implementing the Comprehensive Sexuality Education program being implemented in schools as a Guidance and Counselling (G & C) learning component.
Under the G & C learning, learners in the school get an opportunity to be exposed to the comprehensive topics and they cover sexuality education amongst a host of other issues through age appropriate teachings.
Bulawayo province is implementing guidance and counseling in 15 school as a learning compulsory area and for Primary Schools, it takes the component of comparison, hence it is taught and examined by the Zimbabwe School Examination Council (ZIMSEC) at Grade 7. A minimum five schools were selected from each district in Bulawayo to take up Guidance and Counseling or CSE learning. Selection was based in which schools had the highest burden of pregnancies and drop outs.
Bulawayo has 205 schools and from this number, 58 are secondary schools. In secondary Schools, Bulawayo also has some schools that are taking guidance and counseling as a learning.
Mrs Lavenia Moyo, the Schools inspector for Guidance and counseling in the Bulawayo Metropolitan province said interventions under the CSE have led to a reduction in child marriages, and school dropouts amongst other vices.
“Guidance and Counseling as a learning area has been very effective. We have seen a very huge decrease in the schools dropouts as a result of pregnancy,” said Mrs Moyo.
“I am happy to report that the issue of pregnancies has slightly gone down. We were doing some monitoring recently and we realised that the schools that we had selected for Guidance and Counseling are doing very well. They have fewer cases now and the re-entry policy is being well handled in schools.”
She added that the re-entry program has also contributed to more girls’ finishing school as it allows girls who fall pregnant in school to be retained in school until they are uncomfortable or when they feel they are ready to take a break. Schools accept them back once they give birth to allow them to finish their studies.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) worked with MoPSE on the Curriculum Development Unit to review, edit, validate, and finalise Forms 1 and 2 modules as well as ECD A and Grade 2 modules. Additionally, a supplementary draft learner and teacher handbook that integrates menstrual health management, climate change and mental health, amongst other topics, was produced.
The Comprehensive Sexuality Education or Guidance and Counselling is supported by the Health Reliance Fund (HRF). With HRF support, UNFPA worked with the MoPSE to provide Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) under the Guidance and Counselling learning area. CSE aims to empower young people with correct knowledge, attitudes, skills, and values to make informed SRHR health choices which contribute to the reduction of teenage pregnancy and HIV/STI infections.
The materials developed under CSE curriculum helping guide the delivery of standardised, age-appropriate CSE across all the 10,000 schools in Zimbabwe. In 2024, resources will be required for printing the handbook, especially for schools in rural communities with no printing facilities as well as to complete the review and finalisation of Forms 3 and 4 modules and grade 3. Support will also be required to strengthen the monitoring of teaching of Guidance and Counselling and strengthening of the Education Management Information System to capture all learner welfare incidences.
