The Limpopo Education Department is investigating after a 16-year-old grade 10 student gave birth in a toilet at Molautsi Secondary School in Bloodriver, outside Polokwane.
According to SABC, the student delivered the baby without assistance on Monday.
Her mother confirmed she was seven months pregnant.
The school has a history of high rates of student pregnancies, the report said.
Suzan Xithlelani from the Limpopo Department of Education said the investigation will determine if the school was aware of the pregnancy, noting that schools were required to report such information through the School Administration Management System (SAMS).
“We heard about the incident that happened in Mulaudzi Secondary School; the problem is that they did not even notify the department about the learner who is pregnant, because normally they had to punch in the information of learner pregnancy in their School Administration Management System (SAMS) so that we are aware of learners who are pregnant in Mulaudzi, but without the SAMS and EMIS to give us the information we are not aware but what the department is doing is to check if any educator were aware,” the report quoted Xithlelani as saying.
The department said that both the student and the newborn were under the care of health professionals, Capricorn FM reported.
BASIC EDUCATION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON NOTES GRADE 10 LIMPOPO LEARNER GIVING BIRTH IN SCHOOL TOILET https://t.co/aDeTVH9aKn… @ParliamentofRSA @JustSecuCluster @GovernanceClus1 @DefenceCluster @EconoCluster @FinanceCluster @DBE_SA @edu_limp pic.twitter.com/klXlylcL19
— Health-and-social-Cluster (@HealthSocClust) July 26, 2024
In the comments section, opinions varied widely, with some questioning who should have been responsible for assisting the learner in such a critical situation.
One user said:
Who was supposed to assist her?
— 𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝖠𝗅𝖼𝗁𝖾𝗆𝗂𝗌𝗍 (@DonaldMakhasane) July 25, 2024
Compile by Betha Madhomu
First Published on African Insider
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