A TOTAL of 586 teenage students got pregnant in Northern Mindanao from July to December 2019, the region’s Department of Education (DepEd) reported.
Dr. Myra Yee, medical officer of DepEd-Northern Mindanao, said teenage pregnancy has become the top cause of dropouts of female students ages 15 to 19 in schools in Northern Mindanao.
There are 500,517 junior and senior high school students enrolled in Northern Mindanao for academic school year 2019-2020.
Yee said most, if not all, of the female students’ reasons for dropping out are marriage and family matters.
Yee added that teenage pregnancy can also cause health problems.
“Dako kaayo ang incidents sa mga maternal complication, ang kalisod og panganak ang kamatay, ug ang problema pa gyud niana ang survival sa ilang mga baby,” Yee said.
“Dako ang mortality, survival is very low sa mga bata nga gipanganak sa mga teenaged mothers,” she added.
Yee said the DepEd-Northern Mindanao has formed a long-term solution to the issue on teenage pregnancy called the Comprehensive Sexuality Education.
However, she added, the education department needed the cooperation of the schools and other agencies.
Northern Mindanao has ranked second in having the most number of teenage pregnancies in the country. It stands as one of the areas with a high prevalence of teenage pregnancies, according to the region’s Commission on Population (Popcom).
The teenage pregnancy in the region has tripled from 4.6 percent in 2002 to 14.7 percent in 2017.