Over 25 Teenage mothers in Amuru to benefit from skills training
Teenage mothers that got pregnant and delivered during the first and second lock down due to COVID 19 will benefit from skills training.
Amuru District education Officer, Joyce Lanyero says that after a consultative meeting with the girls who are between 14 to 16 years, this month, the girls said that they prefer to do a tailoring course.
According to Lanyero, the district had planned to secure a nursery within the schools, where the mothers can leave their children and attend normal class study.
However, Lanyero says the girls declined the idea, saying some of them are not only mothers, but also wives who have other responsibilities to attend to, besides child care.
The girls who cannot be named because they are minors argue that doing a skills training will not only give them time to attend to their children, but their other duties like garden work and other house chores.
The district education officer now says that the district will pilot the skills training in tailoring course at one of the schools within the district, St. Phillip Teddi Primary school in Oberabic parish, Amuru Sub County, with funding from Subbi Foundation.
She says this school was chosen because of the high level of teenage mothers, totaling 25, and expect that the number has increased with the recent lock down.
“Our girls usually drop out after primary five. However, the lock down has not spared even the young ones in primary four. On average, at least 20 girls have dropped out in every school. So imagine 20 girls in the 51 government schools,” lamented DEO Lanyero.
The headteacher of St. Phillip primary school, Jennifer Atim confirmed that the school has already received materials needed for the training to begin and plan to enroll 10 girls per shift, to study for atleast three months before they are passed out, to practice tailoring on their own.
According to Atim, the training will not only equip the girls with life skills in tailoring, but will also open doors for economic development so that they can be able to manage life on their own, without depending on their spouses or parents.
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