Research suggests young students who fall pregnant and live far away from their schools are often forced to drop out of school.
Flaviano Soares, who conducted research into pregnant students dropping out in Ainaro, Ermera and Liquisa districts, said his research showed some young girls did not complete their studies because they were sexually assaulted on the street, especially in rural areas.
“The majority of young girls who fall pregnant are from rural areas and the Ministry of Education needs to consider this, especially those who live far away from school,” said Soares in Dili.
Meanwhile, Teresa Pinto, as a mother, asked the Ministry of Education to take action on issues like this because often in rural areas students refuse to go to school because it’s far from home.
“Some girls drop out of school because they’re threatened by other friends on the street when they walk to school and also some girls are sexually assaulted by their boyfriends or unknown people while they walk along the road,” said Pinto.
Vice Minister for Basic Education Dulce de Jesus Soares said their policy was to bring education closer to the people, but it was not easy to resolve in a short time because some people chose to live in the mountains or along the river without road access.
She added sometimes the ministry considered buying transport for schools but this would not resolve the situation, as parents don’t have the awareness to bring their children to live near a big road with access to a school.
“We do not build schools to catch up with the children living there, but we continue to work with the Ministry of State Administration to encourage parents to choose a place where they can get good access to education,” said the Vice Minister.
Apart from the problem of distance, she said there were other causes like the lack of attention from parents, the influence of technology (watching pornography on their phones), using the wrong information and getting pregnant.
