The Beninese News Agency (ABP) has said that over 500 pregnancies were recorded in secondary schools across Benin’s northeastern department of Borgou during the 2019-2020 school year, when the country was on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quoting Thomas Adam, a representative of the Child Protection Department of Secondary Education and Professional and Technical Training Ministry, the ABP report said:
“Altogether, 547 out of 36,487 school girls regularly registered were pregnant during the 2019-2020 school year as against 431 cases in 2018-2019.”
Mr Thomas Adam of the child protection agency attributed the increase in the cases of student pregnancies to the long cessation of classes observed during the coronavirus pandemic.
