Over 40,000 Tanzanian girls dropped out of school over pregnancy – Report

A new report by the Controller and Auditor General of Tanzania (CAG) has revealed that 42,954 teenage girls in the country dropped out of school in 12 months over pregnancy.

The cases were reported between July 2021 and June 2022.

In a report presented to the country’s parliament on Tuesday in Dodoma, CAG noted that out of the 42,954 impregnated girls, 23,009 were from secondary schools and 19,945 were pupils in primary schools.

According to the report, the figure represented 28 percent of 82,236 secondary school girls that were scheduled to complete their ordinary-level education in 2021.

It added that the figure spread across 19 local government authorities in the country.

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The report read: “The secondary schools that had the highest number of impregnated schoolgirls are in Kinondoni municipality in the Dar es Salaam region with 4,652 girls.

“This is followed by the Newala district council in the Mtwara region with 3,783 pregnant girls and the Misungwi district council in the Mwanza region with 2,570 pregnant girls.

“For the primary schools, Kwimba district council in the Mwanza region had the highest number of impregnated schoolgirls during the period under review, with 9,045 girls, followed by Uvinza district council in the Kigoma region with 2,172 girls.”

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