Investigation carried out by this reporter reveals the said disagreement generated from an $800,000 rapid assessment survey conducted by the UNFPA on school children that became pregnant during the Ebola outbreak in the country.
The report, which has not yet been published, reportedly indicates that fourteen thousand children nationwide got pregnant during the Ebola outbreak – a figure which the Ministry of Education Science and Technology and civil society organizations disagree with.
There are claims that Ebola Contact Tracers were reportedly recruited for the said survey, “sidelining” the Education Ministry and civil society organizations working with children, hence the reason why the Education Ministry deliberately refused to certify the UNFPA final report.
In an interview with the Public Relations Officer in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Brima Michael Turay, he said the UNFPA rapid assessment survey was faulty as it was less qualitative and exaggerated.
He revealed that they currently have about 3,017 children with pregnancies in schools with special classes in core subjects and psychosocial support.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Theo Nicol, disclosed to pressmen last Thursday at the weekly government press briefing, that figures from Amnesty International report and others, sound alarming but however noted that such alarming figures in some surveys is a way of galvanizing more international funding.
