Upholding ethics over youth; premarital pregnancy

 

Over the past few decades, teenage pregnancy has become a public concern in forming its youth over a generation of liberation and worldly tolerance of freedom. Data from the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) in 2014 reveal that every hour, 24 babies are delivered by teenage mothers. This has generated a great deal of attention in the country.

 

Breakdown of family life, lack of guidance and good female role models in the family, emotional and psychological crisis, absence of accessible adolescent-friendly clinics and studies on what is moral and uprightare the reasons cited by a news article on premarital pregnancy in Philippine Daily Inquirer.

 

According to the 2014 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality (YAFS) study, around 14 percent of Filipino girls aged 15 to 19 are either pregnant for the first time or are already mothers, this is twice the rate recorded in 2002. Commission on Population (POPCOM) confirmed that Central Visayas is ranked seventh in the most number of cases of teenage pregnancy, nine out of ten from those numbers are students.

 

In this case, teenage pregnancy doesn’t just coincide by its own definition yet it also branches out more societal conflicts such as population growth and unemployment. The National Youth Commission (NYC) expressed alarm over the rising number of students getting pregnant in 2012. NYC Commissioner Perci Cendaña pointed out that the strongest impact of early pregnancy is jeopardizing the future of the young mother.

 

The Universities and its codes and policies play a major role on consistently producing morally conducted individuals to contribute on sustaining a balance to the community and the whole country. However, the persisting liberation and independence of the youth is making an headstrong opposition to the universities that are imposing the process of according students and learners.

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Setting the focus

 

Mistakes for her make her human. To carry not just one’s self but to also take responsibility of raising a family is never a walk in the park for Miraflor Redula, a 20 year old mother of 1 who got pregnant at the age of 19.

 

Miraflor, known to be the breadwinner of her family, took up a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Literature at Cebu Normal University (CNU) while also working as a banker at JP Morgan Chase & Co. She was juggling her studies and work to sustain her educational expenses and to support her family.

 

After learning she was pregnant, anxiety hit her knowing how huge the pregnancy would affect her life. Miraflor admitted that the struggles she had to deal with when her pregnancy started to become evident were more challenging than what she expected and prepared for. Unlike others, Miraflor did not give up her studies. She managed her time well and attended her classes as much as she could. Luckily, she had professors who were understanding enough to sympathize Miraflor’s condition. Being a student who’s bearing a child made her more physically exhausted for she had to give up hours of sleep to balance her time for her studies and her job. She needed to work overtime for the expenses of her pregnancy and to generate the amount needed for her labor. Also because despite her situation her family is still dependent of her.

 

“I knew there were discrimination back then but never did I give a damn. Not even once,” she confidently said when asked how she dealt with other people’s opinions of her especially because she’s a student. She also reiterated that embarrassment is just something that passes by, she focused more on how she’d be able to survive and prove to everybody that it’s never too late to make things up because that’s what’s going to matter in the end.

           

Months later, she delivered a healthy baby girl. While recovering from the operation, she admitted that doubt started to lurk in her mind thinking how she could possibly fill in her class absences. But when she got back right after a week, she then knew that some of her professors allow students who just gave birth to take a leave for recovery and conditioning.

 

When she was still pregnant, Mirafor said she haven't availed any marital services from the clinic since she was not aware of any. Luckily, she was already financially stable that time so she was able to get her own Obstetrician.

 

In March 2016, Miraflor graduated. She was brave, courageous, and determined enough to never let what others call a mistake and people’s judgments influence the path her life was going.

 

“I was much accepted in the CNU community. My friends told me that among all the impregnated students in our school, I was the proudest one,” said Mirafor with a smile.

 

 

Outlining the parameter

 

Cebu Normal University is perceived by many as a conservative society. But just like most colleges and universities in Central Visayas, it has no policies regarding the prohibition or consequences for pregnant students in campus.

 

The university’s Student Manual doesn’t state any guidelines for the rights of the pregnant students. There is no section that states regulations on how many credit hours pregnant or parenting students are allowed to miss, help secure scholarships of students who later become pregnant, or allow pregnant students to make up coursework they may have missed.

 

 

Statistic and data

 

In school years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, 24 students from Cebu Normal University were recorded and confirmed pregnant by the university clinic. Of the 24 students, 16 were underage while eight wasn’t able to withstand the embarrassment and judgments and decided to cease from attending classes.

 

This year’s first semester has not ended yet but there were already 7 college students recorded and verified pregnant. 3 of them are from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and 4 are from the College of Teachers Education (CTE).

 

Campus clinical Nurse Feleda Javier pointed out that the released issued number of pregnant students were record-based-accurate only. Generally, they cannot completely confirm the honest total number of students in the university that was impregnated for there might be some students who are afraid to present themselves in the school clinic and confess their cases.

 

 

Expounding the matter 

 

Generally, all the pregnant students the team interviewed shared no problem regarding how the CNU community reacted to their status. Most of them say they were well accepted especially because there are no prohibitions in the student manual regarding their situations. Does this mean Cebu Normal University promote promiscuity?

 

Promiscuity is the practice of having casual sex  with a partner, different partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. The term can carry a moral judgment if viewed in the context of a mainstream social idea for sexual activity to occur only within exclusive committed relationships.

Having no policy regarding the prohibition of the pregnant student in the university may end up to a conclusion that the CNU community is promoting promiscuity.

 

“In the early years, we used to have policies regarding pregnant students. The school was once very strict on that matter. But as time goes by, those impregnated students are slowly being accepted in the CNU community,” said Feleda Javier, campus clinical nurse, during an interview.

 

“We can never prohibit pregnant students since there are student rights and we are a government-owned institution”, she added.

 

Javier pointed out that these student rights prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex—including pregnancy, parenting and all related conditions —in educational programs and activities that get government funding. This means that schools must give all students who might be, are, or have been pregnant the same access to school programs and educational opportunities that other students have. She also added that professors or administrators should not and cannot tell pregnant students to drop out of classes or change educational plans.

 

The Dean of the Office of Student Affairs (OSA), Dr. Mary Lou Go Pocu, wasn’t able to accommodate the questions and clarifications the team has prepared regarding the matter because of her call of duty. However, we pursue to ask the former Dean of OSA, Dr. Maria Fe Gocotano.

 

“As what I’ve been suggesting, it is very nice that when they teach a particular subject and there is a material application or an integration of sex education, that would just be the best thing, just because sometimes young as you are, you don’t know really the steps or the procedures between the many things happening because young people only think about the after which. They forget that there are so many things in life they have to learn”, said Dr. Gocotano.

She raised the need to enrich sex education in school as one way to prevent premarital pregnancy. She also pointed out that teaching sex education in school was meant to equip and empower learners in making informed choices and decisions on issues that affect their personal safety and well-being.

 

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Realization and Recommendation

 

Cebu Normal University does not prohibit pregnant students from coming to school in accordance to their student rights. The institution benefits from government funding and therefore cannot deprive anyone from their access to school programs and educational opportunities. Despite this lack of proscription, the university doesn’t encourage nor promote promiscuity.

 

Sex education can influence teenagers in many different ways, one of which is through school and community seminars. The government can make it compulsory for students in universities to undergo at least a certain number of hours of sex education. Instead of focusing on the dangers and consequences of teenage pregnancy, schools should also focus in educating and reminding students on what are the advantages of not having a baby at a young age so that they can weigh out their actions and decisions in life. This can be implemented and enforced by getting students to attend service learning trips and exposing them to the actual world as a teenage pregnant student.

 

Aside from the obligation of the government on its youth, parents are very much held responsible in the kind of situation their children is currently experiencing and will experience. The role of the parents towards their children should be effective and ethical. Both a parent and child should build or rebuild a strong relationship in order for parents to influence their children especially on sensitive matters like sex. In other words, a solid parent-child relationship is essential and can greatly help in molding the child’s future through wise decision-making.