‘Review sex education amid teen pregnancies’

MANILA, Philippines — With one out of 10 teenagers aged 15 to 19 getting pregnant, the Department of Education (DepEd) should check comprehensive sexuality education programs to prevent female learners from dropping out of school due to pregnancy, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said.

“If they are not aware of sex education, not aware of their bodies, not aware of the perils if they get pregnant early, they would drop out. The problem with that is they will never go back to school. The way forward is to prevent,” the senator said as he presided over the committee on basic education hearing on the analysis of the Program for International Student Assessment 2022 Results for the Philippines.

Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson expressed alarm over the high number of cases with 11,297 teenagers in his province getting pregnant in 2022 and 2023.

Records showed the youngest to get pregnant was 12 years old, according to the Provincial Health Office. Most of the teenage mothers are out-of-school youth, the report said.

Of the 35,628 pregnancies last year, teenagers accounted for 5,721. The PHO recorded 5,576 cases of teenage pregnancy in 2022.