Teen Pregnancy

COVID-19: Education replaced by shuttered schools, violence, teenage pregnancy. World

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World/06-08-2021/Author and Source: news.un.org

A culture of “safety, friends and food” at school has been replaced by “anxiety, violence, and teenage pregnancy”, with remote learning out of reach for millions, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Tuesday.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “more than 600 million children in countries not on academic break are still affected by school closures”, James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson at a press conference at UN Geneva.

In countries such as Uganda, this has led to a “20 per cent spike in the last 15 months in teen pregnancies, or pregnancies of 10-24-year-old girls, who were seeking antenatal care. Across the globe in all continents we’ve seen child helplines, a good precursor to understanding kids who are reporting violence, seeing often triple-digit increases,” said Elder.

COVID-19 school closures

In nearly half of countries in Asia and the Pacific, schools have been closed for around 200 days. Latin America and the Caribbean have seen some of the longest closures ever with 18 countries and territories affected by either full or partial closures.

As of today, the UN agency estimates in Eastern and Southern Africa that 40 per cent of all children aged 5 to 18, are currently out of school.

Elder added that if these figures “did not resonate with those in power, then a World Bank report estimates a loss of $10 trillion in earnings over time”, for this generation of students.

Remote learning ‘out of reach’

A teenage student studies at home during the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda.
© UNICEF/Francis Emorut
A teenage student studies at home during the COVID-19 lockdown in Uganda.

Equally alarming is the fact that the solution of remote learning is “simply out of reach” for at least a third of the world’s schoolchildren, the UNICEF spokesperson continued. In East Asia and the Pacific, “80 million children have no access whatsoever to any remote learning.

In Eastern and Southern Africa, Uganda school children have gone more than 300 days out of school, while home internet connectivity “is the lowest on the planet there at about 0.3%”.

‘Situation cannot go on’

In a call for action, UNICEF appealed for five main steps: Schools should reopen as soon as possible; governments and donors must protect the education budget; enrolment should be extended to children who were already out of school pre‑COVID‑19 – by removing financial barriers and loosening registration requirements – and cash transfers to the most vulnerable, must be increased.

“Everything needs to be done to bring an end to the pandemic,” Mr. Elder said, starting with making vaccines available everywhere by sharing excess doses and financing to support the roll-out of vaccines.

Source and Image: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/07/1096502

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Kenya: Campaign against FGM and GBV rolled out in Nakuru and Baringo

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Africa/Kenya/09-08-2020/Author and Source: www.kbc.co.ke

Gender activists in Nakuru and Baringo have launched a campaign against Gender Based Violence (GBV), teenage pregnancies, FGM and early marriages in 16 villages within the counties.

Through a Programme rolled out by Dandelion Africa, a community based organization, in partnership with the Ministry of Interior, 250 members of Nyumba Kumi clusters have been engaged in sensitization initiatives aimed at bringing down outdated cultural practices that entrench the vices.

The initiative dubbed Jukumu Langu Project under Wajibu Wetu Programme has also seen more than 300 community members trained on how to report violation of their rights and those of their children so that the legal process is followed for justice.

The Project Director Ruth Nderitu said chiefs and village elders have also been sensitized against settling defilement cases through ‘Kangaroo’ courts, as the process compromised justice to the disadvantage of the affected girls.

She said Dandelion Africa was also using vernacular radio stations, drama and theatre to enhance knowledge on GBV and FGM.

“Elders involved in mediation in these villages have been trained on basic human rights as settling some matters locally denies women, men and young girls and boys justice,” said Nderitu.

She further pointed out that many boys and girls drop out of school or are forced into early marriage as a result of pregnancy.

At the same time, the director said that cases of FGM usually went up during the month of November before peaking in December when schools close for long holidays.

Part of the project entails encouraging men subjected to GBV to open up, report to authorities and seek counseling at health facilities.

“Male survivors of GBV rarely report to police and medical authorities. They will only do so when the physical effects of attacks require urgent intervention. Some men and boys only dare to seek assistance several years after the incident.

Nderitu said GBV and FGM remained deeply etched in most parts of the country due to failure by communities to report the twin vices to authorities, stigmatization, lack of cooperation by witnesses and reluctance by concerned authorities to act.

“The consequences of GBV and FGM are severe particularly for women. They are vulnerable because the vices are condoned by customs, reinforced by institutions and the fact that most rural women have limited knowledge on their rights,” she stated.

Source and Image: https://www.kbc.co.ke/campaign-against-fgm-and-gbv-rolled-out-in-nakuru-and-baringo/

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EEUU: Texas education officials consider changing state’s sex education policy for first time in 23 years

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North America/ EEUU/ 30.06.2020/ Source: www.texastribune.org.

For the first time since 1997, Texas education officials will consider a new statewide sexual education policy, and it could include teaching middle schoolers about birth control options beyond abstinence.

That proposed revision to the state’s health education standards is expected to draw crowds of people — albeit virtually — to Monday’s State Board of Education meeting, where members will take public comment and discuss the changes. Work groups of educators and experts have been working for months preparing recommendations for how the Republican-dominated board should revise its standards.

At what is likely to be a high-tension online hearing, advocates for comprehensive sexual education plan to laud the recommendation to teach abstinence-plus education earlier; opponents will say the proposals go too far beyond abstinence to be legal. The board is expected to make a final decision by November, setting the stage for how teachers and textbook publishers will approach the controversial subject for years to come.

Texas public schools are not required to teach sexual education. State law requires that schools teaching sex ed stress abstinence as the preferred choice for unmarried young people and spend more time on it than any other sexual behavior. Parents can opt their children out of any lesson they want.

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According to a Texan Freedom Network study, just 17% of school districts, including some of the state’s most populous, taught abstinence-plus sex education in 2015-16. At the same time, federal data shows Texas consistently has one of the highest teen birth rates in the country, which studies show correlates with an emphasis on abstinence-only education.

This year, the board will consider requiring all seventh and eight grade health teachers to “analyze the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of barrier protection and other contraceptive methods, including the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, keeping in mind the effectiveness of remaining abstinent until marriage.” Currently that is only a requirement in high school, where health education is an optional course. All Texas public schools must offer health education for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Advocates for comprehensive sexual education consider the proposed change a win and will rally for the board to approve it. “If we include basic information about topics like contraception and STI [sexually transmitted infection] prevention at the middle school level, we know students will have some exposure to that before high school,” said Jen Biundo, director of policy and data for the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

The organization conducted a public opinion poll with the firm Baselice & Associates, which shows that 75% of poll respondents, including 68% of Republicans, support teaching sexual education that prioritizes abstinence but also provides information about contraception and STI prevention.

The state board last took up the health standards in 1997 and then adopted abstinence-only health textbooks in 2004. Abstinence-only advocates have successfully kept information on birth control and sexually transmitted disease prevention out of textbooks for decades.

As more school districts adopt more robust sexual education curricula, Texas Values, a conservative statewide advocacy group, has organized campaigns to fight back. Most recently, it led a group of detractors to speak out against Austin Independent School District’s proposed curriculum for grades three through eight, which included topics like gender identity, reproductive anatomy and body image, tailored for each grade. The school board unanimously approved the curriculum.

“Leftist LGBT advocacy groups are calling this a ‘once in-a-generation opportunity’ to attack Texas’ abstinence focused approach and teach highly sexualized LGBT propaganda starting in kindergarten,” read a Texas Values email blast sent to subscribers Friday.

Texas Values is also urging board members to exclude health standards teaching students about gender identity or sexual orientation. “Teaching children to question the biological reality of their gender or engage in dangerous sexual behavior at a young age is not the job of Texas schools,” said Mary Elizabeth Castle, a Texas Values policy adviser, in a statement to The Texas Tribune.

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Advocacy groups like Texas Freedom Network and Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy are asking the board to include LGBTQ students in the standards. The existing standards and the proposed revisions make no explicit mention of those students, who are more likely to be discriminated against and bullied in their schools.

Source of the notice: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/29/Texas-schools-sex-education-policy/

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EEUU: Baltimore city is suing Trump administration over cuts to teen pregnancy prevention education

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EEUU/March 27, 2018/BY DR. LEANA S. WEN/Source: http://thehill.com

Baltimore City joined a lawsuit brought by Healthy Teen Network against President Trump, challenging a decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to cut funding from evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention education.

In June 2015, the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) was awarded an $8.6 million grant to implement comprehensive, evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention education in all of the City’s more than 120 middle schools and high schools.

In July 2017, BCHD received notice from HHS that the grant period would be terminated two years early. This termination amounts to a reduction in overall grant funding to $5.1 million — a funding cut of $3.5 million. Despite multiple phone and written requests for explanation, Baltimore City has not received a response from HHS as to why our program is being terminated.

This cut is not just cruel — it’s unprecedented. Funding for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiatives (TPPI) was appropriated by an act of Congress — a statutory mandate — specifically dictating to HHS the parameters under which the funding was to be distributed. The funding appropriated is still available for the five-year grant period.

There is no reason to terminate it early. HHS made its decision despite the early success of the program and strong evidential foundation, violating the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirements that agency decision making not be arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or contrary to law.

The funding cut means that 20,000 students in Baltimore will no longer have evidence-based curricula, creating a vacuum of critical health education for vulnerable youth. In addition to eliminating education on physiology, as well as STD and HIV prevention, the funding cut also removes the financial support necessary to train teachers and build capacity for health education. Last year, BCHD trained 115 teachers to deliver evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs. These facilitators ensured that more than 10,000 Baltimore City teens received this valuable education during the 2016-2017 academic year alone.

The Trump administration’s actions also jeopardize the newly-formed Youth Advisory Council, which is comprised of Baltimore City teens who serve as peer health advocates and share information about reproductive health. For the participants in this program, their education goes well beyond health: the program gives them control over their lives and empowers them to make the best choices for themselves. One participant told us, “Without this education, I likely would have been a teen mom and my future would have been very different.”

As a doctor and public health official, I have seen how much this evidence- and science-based grant has helped Baltimore. In particular, I am deeply concerned about three major areas if funding is curtailed.

First, this will slash educational attainment and economic opportunities for our youth. This cut comes at a time when Baltimore City has made remarkable progress, reducing teen pregnancy by 61 percent since 2000. Numerous studies show us that reducing teen birth rates increases young girls’ ability to graduate from high school and to have economic stability for themselves and their families.

Second, these funding cuts will increase costs for our City and for our country. In 2010, teen pregnancy and childbirth accounted for nearly $10 billion in costs nationwide. We should be doing everything we can to empower our youth to succeed and to thrive.

The devastating impacts of these cuts extend beyond Baltimore City: These cuts will affect 81 grantees across the country, totaling $213.6 million. As a result, it is estimated that 580,000 students will no longer be provided with essential evidence-based reproductive health education.

Third, these cuts will adversely affect health outcomes for our most vulnerable mothers and children. Teen mothers give birth at higher rates to preterm, low birth-weight babies, who are more likely to have worse health outcomes. Adolescent and teen pregnancy is also associated with increased risk of infant mortality.

There are also poorer long-term health outcomes for the mothers themselves. I voice my concern not just as a doctor, but as a new mother to a seven-month-old son. Parents want nothing more than to have a healthy child. If we have a strategy that will improve health outcomes for our women and children, then the last thing we should do is cut funding that could hurt generations to come.

In Baltimore, we do not see this funding cut as a number. We see the faces of 20,000 teens who will not receive critical pregnancy prevention education. We see the effect on their futures and on their children’s futures. We see the impact on our communities. We fear what this means for valuing science and evidence, and for how we can continue to fulfill our responsibility of protecting health and ensuring well-being.

Leana S. Wen M.D. is the health commissioner of Baltimore City. Follow her on Twitter @DrLeanaWen.

Source:

http://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/379869-baltimore-city-is-suing-trump-administration-over-cuts-to-teen-pregnancy

 

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