A 12-year-old girl, barely out of Form Two, was one of 31 children to drop out of school over the past three years because of an unplanned pregnancy, Education Ministry figures show.

The figures were tabled in Parliament on Monday and reveal that an average of 10 girls, aged 12 to 15, left school every year after getting pregnant.

Less than half of those who left school returned to continue their schooling.

The figures actually mark a decrease in the number of teenage pregnancies observed in previous years.

Another set of Education Ministry figures  shows there were 74 school-age pregnancies in 2008 alone. There was one case that year where a school girl, who had got pregnant at 13, had then ended up pregnant again at 15 while she was trying to gear up for her O levels. The 12-year-old was the youngest girl on the latest list of drop outs, with the majority aged between 14 and 15.

Andrea Dibben, a lecturer at the University of Malta and a PhD student at the University of Bristol, who has spent the past two years studying pregnant teenagers said most of these girls came from a disadvantaged background. "Not to say that they were all disadvantaged. What I have found is that there are categories most of the girls fit into,” she said.

Others had actually been “saved” through motherhood, as their pregnancy had led them away from problems with drug abuse, self harm and other anti social behaviour. 

The final category, Ms Dibben said, were those girls who used their pregnancy as a way to set targets for themselves and so gain control over their lives.

ivan.martin@timesofmalta.com