BUJUMBURA, January 24th (ABP) – A good school environment is an essential condition to ensure good learning conditions, well-being and the development of students, education expert Cassien Gashirahamwe, told a check by ABP on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.
According to him, the presence of sexual violence affects school learning. He estimated that, unfortunately, sexual violence at school is commonplace, based on the data he collected during the 2022/223 school year. Thus, during this period mentioned, he discloses 655 fatherless girls, 217 motherless girls, 130 fatherless and motherless girls, and 224 vulnerable children, 3251 children from the complete family, 263 children of the separated families and 664 undeclared children, who contracted unwanted pregnancies. Among them, 879 girls are students, 536 of whom are from post-basic schools and 343 from basic schools.
Expert Gashirahamwe revealed, in this regard, that the perpetrators of violence against students are, among others, teachers, school authorities and other students, traders, motorcyclists and drivers. As he explains, the latter are largely made up of categories of people who take advantage of the poverty in which those students and their families are immersed. Gashirahamwe also stressed that the perpetrators of unwanted pregnancies among students are not well identified in the community because, he explained, during the same school year, the unknown perpetrators were 56% while the known perpetrators were 44%.
In addition, the lack of dialogue between children and their parents is also one of the factors that increase these cases of unwanted pregnancies in schools. Added to this is the fact that young people are not able to analyze different information from social media. “Because of ignorance, these young people consume everything that passes in front of their eyes, which ends up exposing them to this kind of behavior” he insisted.
Parents should talk to their children about sexual and reproductive health in clear terms without evasion, Gashirahamwe said. “They must really know all the dangers that await them when indulging in sexual relations while still at school. Unfortunately, it is as if parents were afraid of their children,” he deplored.
He stressed that the fight against this violence requires a comprehensive approach, combining prevention, support for victims and strengthening of legislative and social frameworks. He called on all stakeholders to combine efforts for a better future of young people, and therefore of the country.
Emmerentienne Nduwimana, legal representative of the association Icirori c’amahoro, pointed out that the victims of those pregnancies are largely students from post-basic classes. According to her, such violence can affect the well-being of students by exposing them to school failure due to absenteeism, dropping out and lack of motivation for school success. It also affects their mental and physical health resulting in physical injuries, pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, she said.
She called on teenage students to abstain and concentrate on their studies in order to avoid those unwanted pregnancies because, she said, “a good husband and a good wife are educated”, recalling that having sexual intercourse at an early age opens the door to several problems in life.