Guide and keep children safe during vacation

The Primary Seven and Senior Four exams have ended and soon, the Senior Six students will be completing their exams. These students are going for long holidays, some lasting more than eight months.

This calls for serious thought from parents, authorities and government. During school time, the children are protected, controlled and monitored according to the school schedules. Back in our homes, they may not be as busy as they were in schools and may also not be as protected as they were. In an increasingly absentee parent setting where the children are on their own at home or with househelps, anything can go wrong.

During the Covid-19-induced lockdown, many girls were defiled and became pregnant as they waited for the opening of schools, and many were unable to go back.

Therefore, parents, as you prepare to receive your children, look at the dangers they face. As you prepare to engage them at home as a parent, think about this: Teenage pregnancy is at 25 percent, the highest in East Africa. In Uganda’s 10 cities and 17 districts, there has been a reported increase in teenage pregnancies and related deaths, according to the policy and strategic direction against teenage pregnancy report for 2024 compiled by the Ministry of Health. The Unicef report also shows that teenage pregnancy has been on the rise since 2011.

Each of Uganda’s cities and districts lost over 90 teenagers in the year 2022/23, showing a grim picture of teenage pregnancies.

In the same report, the number of teenagers below 19 years who died increased from 122 per 100,000 to 152 per 100,000, a 10 percent increase.

The report indicates that many are dying due to complications related to unsafe abortions, showing that last year, about 7,000 girls sought abortion in different places.

There are also many cases of school dropouts with media putting a figure at 1.7 million in just six years. While many of these dropouts cannot be traced, many actually stop school at the end of each level; primary, secondary and higher institutions of learning. The number keeps shrinking, the higher one goes. 

Apart from pregnancy, early marriages, many boys also drop out to go for child labour, even when many of them could afford to keep in school. Therefore, as a parent, get a way of engaging your child so that she /he continues to learn after vacation. Make it useful by taking them for training or engaging them in productive work. Authorities including local leaders must play a big role. 

The girls being defiled are in our communities and the defilers are known to the leaders or police, but sometimes are protected. The boys are taken to work in quarries and other dangerous places in our own communities. Let’s protect them. Let’s ensure they continue in school and complete their education cycle.