Teachers are responsible for six percent of the 12,048 cases of teenage pregnancies in the Central region in 2016, a study has found.
The 12,048 figure is a slight drop from the previous year’s figure of over 14,000 cases of teenage pregnancy.
This came up during the Central regional health performance review at the University of Cape Coast.
According to Joy News Central regional correspondent Richard Kwadwo Nyarko, the Ghana Health Service did not understand why the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy is so persistent over the years.
The Service, therefore, sought to find out the professions of those behind the teething problem in the region so as to help tackle it from the source.
It came to light in their study that in the top five categories of the profession of those who were responsible 996 cases which represent 19.3 percent of the population sampled, small-scale farmers were responsible for the pregnancies, with drivers impregnating 676 girls representing 13 .3 percent of the total number of reported cases.
Also, the study found that 397 cases [7.8 percent] were attributed to small-scale miners while 353 cases [6.9 percent] blamed on unemployed residents of the region.
The concern, however, was that in 301 cases [5.9 percent] primary and secondary school teachers who are supposed to be nurturing the future leaders were responsible for the pregnancies.
It significant to note that more than 837 of the respondents [16.4 percent] of the teenagers said they did not know the profession of those who made them pregnant.
Regarding the marital status of the pregnant teenagers sampled, 70 percent of them [3,576] said they were single, while 23.8 percent [1213] were co-habitating with their partners.
Some 283 of the teenagers [5.5 percent] were married while 27 persons were divorced [0.5 percent] with 7 widowed [0.1 percent].
According to the study, “the early teen (14 years and below) pregnancy trend also showed a decline from 371 pregnancies in 2014 to 292 in 2015 and to 231 in 2016.”