By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG

Some 20,000 students have fallen pregnant in South African schools last year, the Department of Education revealed Wednesday.

In a written reply to parliament, the Department said that some 223 cases of teenage pregnancy were reported in primary schools.

According to the reply, South Africa’s economic hub of Gauteng has reported the highest number of pregnant students at just over 5,000, followed by the Eastern Cape Province with 3898.

Over 2,000 cases of pregnancy among students were reported in Western Cape Province.

The Department, however, was not able to say how many of the pregnant students have since returned to school.

"Teenage pregnancy is a serious problem in South Africa and must be constructively and comprehensively addressed," Sonja Boshoff, a member of the Democratic Alliance’s Basic Education Portfolio Committee in parliament, said in a statement.

She called for summoning Education Minister Angie Motshekga to brief the parliament on her plans to discourage teenage pregnancy.

"Education is a key to future success and without it; these young people will not have a fair chance at a better life," she said.

Teenage pregnancies are frequent at certain schools in South Africa, with female students as young as 15 getting pregnant.

In South Africa, students who fall pregnant are not expelled from school. They are allowed to continue with their students but some decide to drop out.

This week, educational authorities in Gauteng, the country’s richest province, said they were considering underarm contraceptive implants to help reduce soaring numbers of teenage pregnancy in schools.

 "We are thinking of various ways to curb teenage pregnancy and the implant is one of them," Phumla Sekhonyane, a spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Education, told The Anadolu Agency in an earlier interview.