150 first year students pregnant at DUCE as a result of forced sex

Dar es Salaam: Gender-based violence, such as rape, has been blamed for the high rates of pregnancy in higher learning institutions. Research has shown among 1,000 enrolled students at Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE), 150 are pregnant.

Research conducted by DUCE’s Gender and Equality Unit, between June and November, last year, shows that many of those pregnant are first year students.

DUCE gender coordinator, Dr. Dativa Shilla, revealed this during a gender workshop prepared by the college, highlighting factors for the situation as violence, harassment and assaults committed by male colleagues against the females, in what can be referred to as rape, where the female students are forced to have sex without their consent.

“The research shows that there is no gender equality in getting proper education, because the one who is pregnant cannot concentrate the same way her male counterpart does in class,” she said.
Earlier, a senior lecturer from Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy, Amon Katunzi, urged the government to provide education loans to every students so that female students are financially independent.

He said among the reasons accounting for pregnancies are bad economic conditions which many females face in the college.

“Money is still a problem which needs to be solved by the government soon,” he said.
The workshop aimed at delivering education and recommendations to students so that they could abstain from sexual relationship and focus on their studies.

Married students have also been urged not to get pregnancy during their education years in order for them to concentrate on their studies.

According to a second year student Gosbeth Kihanga pregnancy at college is associated with difficult lives of many students, adding that the workshop has helped them understand a lot in sexual relationship and violence.