Trinidad: 3 primary school student pregnancies in last 5 years

(Trinidad Guardian) Among the some 3,577 re­port­ed cas­es of teenage preg­nan­cies be­tween 2014 and March 2019, three were pri­ma­ry school stu­dents.

The rev­e­la­tion was made by the Na­tion­al Par­ent Teacher’s As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Raf­fiena Ali-Boodoos­ingh Wednes­day dur­ing a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee in­quiry on teenage preg­nan­cies.

The rev­e­la­tion comes just a few days be­fore a Siparia stu­dent is due to give birth af­ter be­ing raped.

The NPTA pres­i­dent was cit­ing Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion sta­tis­tics.

The ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of the Fam­i­ly Plan­ning As­so­ci­a­tion Dona Da Cos­ta Mar­tinez said sta­tis­tics in­di­cat­ed that 60 per cent of teens were sex­u­al­ly ac­tive by age 16.

She said many teens have come to the as­so­ci­a­tion al­ready hav­ing had an abor­tion done.

Most of the 3,577 teenage preg­nan­cies were in Port-of-Spain.