The Minister of Education and Sports Jessica Alupo  has expressed great concern over the rising number of female pupils who are failing to complete primary school due to pregnancy.

"I have noted with concern that the number of pupils who registered for PLE exams and failed to turn up has increased from that of the previous year. In my judgement I attribute this increase mainly to teenage pregnancies. This is a worrying trend and it must be arrested," Alupo said, recalling two incidents where two pupils gave birth during last year's PLE exams.

Attributing the vice mainly to laxity among parents, Alupo challenged parents/guardians to join hands with the government in a bid to reverse the trend.

According a report delivered by Acting Executive Secretary of the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) Matthew Bukenya, as many as 20,017 (3.7%) pupils out of total 535,933 pupils who registered for 2011 PLE exams did not sit for the exams.  

A deeper analysis of the figures however shows that nearly as many boys as girls failed to sit for the final exams, which suggests that other causes besides pregnancy contributed to the problem last year.

Records in the Ministry of Education and Sports indicate that the senior four completion rate for girl students was as low as 35% in 2010 with 2 out of 3 girls dropping out of school before senior four as a result of adolescent pregnancy.

Echoing Alupo, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Education Aggrey Kibenge warned that the trend is likely to worsen if parents continue to neglect their God-given mandate of raising and disciplining their children responsibly.

Kibenge condemned what he called a wrong mentality among parents that "government owes them the responsibility of monitoring and disciplining their own children on top of paying fees in the case of UPE and USE programs children."  

"If parents are expecting government to monitor their children simply because they are under UPE, they are missing the point and am afraid they may see many more children getting pregnant," Kibenge warned.

He did not spare local government and community leaders whom he blamed for allegedly ignoring children found in awkward places engaging in suspicious acts during school hours.

Alupo's lamentation comes hot on the heels of a recent call by Buganda's Queen Nabagereka Sylvia Nagginda to parents to up their efforts in controlling the high rate of school drop outs.

Nagginda said:  "We must turn to our adolescents and help them to delay the age at which they start to engage in sexual activities because up to 40% of newborn deaths are associated with adolescent mothers,"

Attributing the state of affairs to the breakdown of the moral fibre and the erosion of cultural values in Uganda's society, the Nabagereka warned that little might be done to overturn the status quo without championing the cause to restore moral values among the young generation.

Nagginda has since 2001 won the financial support of United Nations population fund (UNFPA) in support of her programmes aimed at education of the girl child.

But the shadow Minister of Education  Buikwe South Member of Parliament (MP) Lulume Bayiga blames the rising cases of teenage pregnancy among primary pupils to gaps in UPE which he says leave plenty of time to pupils to play around for lack of enough constructive engagement from teachers.

"Some parents consider UPE just as an opportunity to leave home and go into the outside world to interact with friends," Bayiga says

He also attributed the growth in the vice to extreme poverty in some homes which he says has forced "some girls to make their own ends meet,' as well as new forms of access to information which blames for bringing sexual pictures to the attention of pupils.