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The increase in teenage pregnancies in Malta has not gone unnoticed, raising the need for reproductive health education
Matthew Vella
Malta’s teenage mothers increased drastically in 2005, as births by 16-year-olds who became mothers increased by 55 per cent over the average in the past five years.
Forty births were registered last year by mothers aged 16. A total number of 54 births were registered to child mums ages 16 or under. It is the highest number of teenage births yet within the last five years. In 2004, there were 49 births to teenage mothers aged 16 or under.
Sonia Camilleri, the Commissioner for Children, says “children having children” are a doubly worrying reality. “They often leave the education system and end up without any certificates or training which are vital for them to support themselves. They are therefore at the risk of poverty.”
Camilleri says that parental support is vital. Many children end up fatherless, and their mothers may not be ready to raise them. “There is the danger of having a vicious circle of problems leading to other problems. It is commendable that single mothers are supported financially, however I think that the social security benefits must be linked to commitments to attend further learning and training which will make the girls self-sufficient.”
The increase in teenage pregnancies in Malta has not gone unnoticed. In 2002, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child suggested that Malta introduces reproductive health education and counselling services. The result was the introduction of Personal and Social Development classes in the education curriculum.
Additionally, a special unit within the Education Division was set up to address the situation of girl mothers.
Camilleri says the problem lies with a late start on vital education. She herself has been campaigning for more PSD lessons, as well as media education lessons. The commissioner says the effect of the media on young people is so strong that it undermines all they might have learnt at home and at school.
“Low self-esteem and lack of assertiveness have been identified as factors leading to teenage pregnancies. Especially in PSD it has recenly been felt that education in these issues starts too late, and more should be done in the primary schools. So far, only few PSD lessons are given here and such basics as values and interprersonal skills, which should precede reproductive health education, should be given from the very start.”
But Dolores Cristina, the Minister for the Family and Social Solidarity, says the government has increased PSD classes, which are offerred in all secondary schools, and have recently also started being offerred in primary schools. She says it is a preventive approach by increasing awareness through formal education.
“This is no way way a local phenomenon,” Cristina says about the rise in number of teenage pregnancies. “Rather, we are observing an increase in this trend in a wide-spread manner around the world. Malta is not isolated in this new challenge which it faces, which is certainly due to many influential factors, such as changes in lifestyle, cultural patterns, parental–child relationships, as well as media, be it television, advertising, cinema, internet.”
The second approach is a remedial one. The government offers alternative schooling to pregnant teenagers through the project ‘Ghozza’, whilst the Foundation for Welfare Services runs ‘Benniena’ at St Luke’s Hospital, a programme for vulnerable mothers and their partners, as well as ‘Programm Ulied Darna’ and the newly launched Home-Start.
Like Sonya Camilleri, Cristina says the phenomenon of teenage mothers requires addressing the issue of absent fathers. “This society cannot afford to ignore this, an absence of particular impact on the children themselves. The social impact of teenage pregnancies is one that cannot be ignored and the ministry is currently involved in assessing this, together with the impact of the social services offered.”
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
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