Absence of Comprehensive Sex Education Policy Leaves Akwa Ibom Girls at Risk of Teenage Pregnancy, Sexual Misinformation

By Ndifreke Enefiok, Uyo

In Akwa Ibom State, the absence of a costed education sector plan that is both gender-responsive and sensitive is leading to a range of challenges in the state’s efforts to successfully implement its free and compulsory education policy.

Despite having a strategic education roadmap 2020-2030, developed by a group of experts in the education sector, Akwa Ibom State continues to face many challenges and gaps in the implementation of education policies.

These gaps particularly affects girls, who are at the risk of teenage pregnancy, child abuse, absenteeism, and school drop-outs especially in remote and coastal areas.

The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 2019, explains that an “Education Sector Plan (ESP) presents a critical opportunity to embed gender equality into the DNA of all aspects of education. Gender-responsive education sector planning (GRESP) is the vehicle for achieving this – identifying gender barriers within education systems and ensuring that strategies and policies are in place to address them through the ESP.”

Despite the advantages of the ESP, the Akwa Ibom State government has failed to implement its strategic roadmap, thereby leaving young schoolgirls vulnerable, schools unprepared, and critical programmes like sex education not comprehensively taught across public schools in the State. A GRESP, if costed could provide a framework that ensures adequate funding, teachers training, curriculum support for sex education in public schools across the state.

What is more, at 15, Gracious Effiong (name changed for privacy) had dreams of becoming a nurse. But that dream came crashing when she discovered she was pregnant in 2023. In 2020, Gracious was a student at Methodist Primary School, Usung Inwang, Adadia but was sent to Benin to work as a maid. In November of the same year, she returned to Adadia and joined her parents who are fishermen at a fishing port to pick periwinkle.

Picking periwinkle at the beach side or children travelling with their parents and strangers to far away Cameroon is not a strange sight in Adadia. In Adadia especially during the popular market days which is every Mondays, children including boys and girls skip school to work at the beach side to contribute to the household income.

These children earn a living by picking periwinkle that falls from the bags of customers on the market days to sell in order to contribute to the household income. An adventure that comes with long torturous hours of labour, less fraction of the market demands, sexual exploitation, and abuse of young schoolgirls who get preyed on by young fishermen.

It was during one of those laborious journeys that Gracious got pregnant in 2023 in Cameroon. Last year, she met a young canoe man and moved in with him. Today, Gracious, who is heavily  pregnant for her second child, narrated amid mixed reactions, that she had very little knowledge of sex education as her community school did not offer any sex education.

Despite being heavily pregnant, the young girl sells cooked rice on a rusty wheelbarrow under scorching sun or rain around the beach. She explained that she learnt a few things about sex education in Benin and relied on her peers who themselves were equally uninformed about critical topics like menstruation, puberty, reproductive health, and sexual consent.

“When I dropped out of school and joined my mother in Cameroon to pick periwinkle, I didn’t fully understand what it means to be pregnant. Even though I learnt about sex education in Benin where I worked as a maid, they didn’t explain everything I needed to know then.

I was told that girls should not sleep with boys and we should always take care of ourselves during menstruation. I didn’t know what ovulation was or how to calculate my menstrual calendar. Even at home, my mother will only tell me that, as the first child, if I misbehave, all my sisters will take after me,” Gracious explained with an innocent smile.

Gracious, now 19, from a family of six girls and two boys, is a teenage mother struggling to earn a living for her family, and care for her one year old baby girl in a society where silence around sexual health remains deafening. Her immediate younger sister and brother are also not spared. They both dropped out of school and are young parents today due to limited knowledge on reproductive health education, and misinformation surrounding sex education.

“I didn’t even know how pregnancy happens. The young boy I met in Cameroon deceived and lured me into believing that if I sleep with him I won’t get pregnant. He even promised to marry me but abandoned me when he knew I was pregnant. If I knew better about sex education, I would have protected myself but I have now accepted my fate,” Gracious told TheMail Newspaper.

Her story is not strange. Like Gracious and her siblings, many young schoolgirls in Akwa Ibom State have limited or no access to comprehensive sex education. Most of the public schools visited in the cause of this report have no structured curriculum on reproductive health, qualified teachers, and students rely on little information from their Biology lessons or friends. Many of whom were equally uninformed, are falling through the cracks of teenage pregnancy, sexual exploitation and abuse.

Several Data on Akwa Ibom Shows  Troubling Trends
In 2018, data from the Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), revealed that a significant percentage of adolescents aged 15-19 had begun childbearing, while one in five girls within the same age range is pregnant.

The report further highlighted that over 300,000 girls of secondary school age are not in school due to pregnancy or child marriage.
Similarly, the report rated Akwa Ibom’s adolescent pregnancy at 12.8%, the third highest in the South-South region after Bayelsa and Cross River States, which had 19.9% and 14% respectively.

Another report by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), in 2018 revealed that the State had an estimated 581,800 children who were not in school. The second highest after Kano, while on gender spread, it had 298,161 out-of-school female children, the highest in Nigeria at the time.
In terms of child marriage, Akwa Ibom ranked as one of the states with the highest incidence of child marriage in the South with 23 percent, according to data from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

In 2020, a National Bureau of Statistics report on Women and Men, revealed that the State has an estimated 581,500 out-of-school children. Despite its free and compulsory education policy and the Child Rights Law 2008, many schoolgirls in Akwa Ibom continue to fall to the crack of teenage pregnancy and sexual misinformation.

UNICEF highlighted child labour, poverty, lack of inclusive policies, economic barriers, lack of sponsorship, among others as a contributory factors to the reason more girls are dropping out of school.

TheMail Newspaper investigation and data from the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Economic Development showed that Akwa Ibom has a higher enrollment of girls than boys from primary to secondary school but had a low completion rate.

A survey of 10 public secondary schools in rural areas across the three senatorial districts in the State showed that at least two girls in each senior class had dropped out of school due to teenage pregnancy, have little knowledge of reproductive health education or rely on peers for information on sex education.
Despite these alarming statistics, successive governments have failed to implement a costed GRESP that allocates adequate funds to address these problems.

Birthing Babies Amid Ignorance, Shame

Several data have shown that teenage pregnancy remains a persistent issue in Akwa Ibom State. What is more concerning is the fact that many of these schoolgirls drop out of school to birth babies amid ignorance, shame, and a lack of understanding of the changes happening in their bodies.

Just like Gracious, who had little knowledge of sex education or how to protect herself from teenage pregnancy, Mercy Peter (name changed for privacy), another young girl in Adadia, has also dropped out of school and is now raising a three-year-old daughter.

The 17-year-old girl left school in JSS1 in 2021 after falling pregnant for a canoe boy. “My friends told me if I drank salt water after sex, it would prevent me from getting pregnant. I kept drinking salt water and chewing pepper fruit, thinking it would work. But it didn’t work,” Mercy explained.

After her first pregnancy, Mercy moved in with another canoe boy who lives near the  beach. On a sunny Friday afternoon when our reporter visited Adadia in March, Mercy was seen with a black eye and scratches across her arms, visible signs of physical abuse.

Now a young mother, Mercy faces not only the burden of teenage pregnancy but also the trauma of domestic violence. She recounted how the canoe boy often unleashes his anger on her at any slight provocation, leaving her battered and fearful at times.

When asked if her school taught sex education before she dropped out, Mercy revealed that sex education was occasionally taught by Corps members during break periods. However, the sessions were not mandatory, and many girls, including herself, rarely attended.

‘’Even when I tried to join, the classes were rushed, and I didn’t understand anything,” she added.

“If I had a better understanding of sex education, maybe I would not have been lured by the boys. Sex education was not taught in our house because my parents are always at the seaside and rarely at home. Most of the things I know today, I learnt it from other girls like me,” she said.

The teenage mother however revealed that everyday she faces exclusion, shame and stigmatisation from people who see her as a bad influence to other girls in the neighbourhood.

Mercy experience is just one of many in Adadia and across many public schools where sexual misinformation thrives in the absence of a structured and inclusive sex education curriculum.

A Health worker with one of the government hospitals who spoke on the condition of anonymity, revealed that the prevalence of teenage pregnancy will continue to go higher especially during the rainy season, and largely due to inaccessible schools, limited access to quality sex education, healthcare and support services.

The nurse who believes the lack of structured government interventions can put young girls back into the classroom, noted that “we cannot keep blaming these girls when there’s little or no knowledge around sex education. Schools need comprehensive sex education, trained counselors who can support and attend to the needs of girls outside their regular academic, safe spaces and reproductive health services that are gender-friendly and non-judgmental,” she stated.

For girls like Mercy, the future remains uncertain. Without educational support or social protection, many of them will continue to live in cycles of poverty, violence, and neglect, and will continue to birth more babies instead of going back to school. Experts argue that returning these girls to school through Second-Chance education programmes, offering vocational training, and introducing conditional grants could provide young mothers another chance at choosing their future.

A School Arming Girls Amid Lean Resources
At Community Secondary School, Adadia, the school management armed with understanding of the high rate of teenage pregnancies in the area, is offering pregnant girls a lifeline by encouraging them to complete their education.

The principal of the School, Dr Umoren Usoro confirmed girls drop out in droves due to teenage pregnancy. In response, the school introduced an interactive forum where female teachers and female students meet to discuss issues around sex education, reproductive health, menstruation, and other concerns affecting girls.

“Due to the concerns we have noticed, we try not to overwork our female teachers so that they can have more free periods to interact with the female students, teach them about sex education, their bodies, and how to handle different women’s issues,” he said.

Although the school regulations prohibit pregnant girls from staying in class due to safety concerns, the administrator maintained that they encourage students particularly those in exit classes to complete their education.

“You know this is a riverine area. It’s not like we encourage teenage pregnancy, but once a girl falls pregnant, we do our best to support her. Most of them are lured by fishermen with money and taken advantage of. Because we understand the high prevalence of teenage pregnancy here, we ensure they do not drop out completely. We’ve also strategically requested more female teachers from the government so they can serve as role models,” he explained.

Usoro revealed that most of the programmes initiated would have been effective after school hours, but with the current curriculum where junior students offer 10 subjects and seniors juggling as many as 15, it would be difficult to stretch the girls beyond school hours.

He added that while there’s no standalone subject on sex education, topics related to it are embedded within other subjects such as Physical and Health Education, Basic Science and Technology, Security Education, and National Value Education.

While Community Secondary School, Adadia, have long initiated a student-teacher forum for girls to learn, at St. Augustine Secondary School, Urua Inyang, sex education was missing except in Biology lessons under human reproductive organs.

A survey conducted among 15 girls in SS1 in the school revealed a troubling gap; the majority had very little knowledge about sex education, consent, or reproductive health means. Only 15 girls demonstrated a fair knowledge of the topic, while the rest were visibly shy and struggled to express themselves when asked about it.

Goodness Nelson, a 15-year-old SS1 student, could define teenage pregnancy and had some good knowledge of sexuality education. However, she admitted she did not know how to calculate her menstrual cycle or fully understand the concept of consent or the physical changes occuring in her body.

In her school, there’s no structured or comprehensive sex education curriculum. Lessons on pregnancy, menstruation, and consent are not taught in a holistic or practical manner. However, the Girls Club which she belongs to, has offered her an avenue to learn. Through the club, girls like Goodness are being armed with the knowledge they need to protect themselves from becoming another statistic.

“I joined the club to understand more about girls’ issues and to avoid ending up like some of my classmates who dropped out in junior school after getting pregnant,” she said.

Schools Explore other Alternatives in place of Teachers
Meanwhile, at Community Secondary Commercial School, FourTowns Uyo, sex education is handled by Corps Members who teach during break periods. Marvelous Edem, an SS1 student, noted that although the Corps Members try their best, the sessions are brief, often held in  crowded classrooms where boys disrupt the lessons and make it difficult for the girls to concentrate. Despite this, Marvelous  considers it better than her previous village school where sex education was not taught at all.

In Community Secondary School, Ikot Ese, Etim Ekpo LGA, the situation remains dire. Teenage pregnancies are common, with at least one or two girls dropping out every term. A teacher who pleaded anonymity told TheMail Newspaper that although the teachers try to break lessons down and offer support to the girls, they do not explicitly address the issue of teenage pregnancy.

The teacher pointed to poverty as a key factor. According to him, “Many of the girls come to school hungry and trek long distances. Some lack school materials, proper uniforms, and even shoes. Even if we teach them about sex education, how do we protect them from hunger? Some of them come to school without food and will return to homes with no food. Boys offer them small amounts of money, snacks and other things, that is how they take advantage of the girls. The issue isn’t always lack of knowledge, it’s poverty,” he explained.

At Archibong Memorial Secondary School, Ukpom in Ikono LGA, sex education activities have stalled following the demise of the school counselor. A teacher from the school, who pleaded anonymity, revealed that before the counselor’s death, the school had a solid structure in place where boys and girls were split into smaller groups and educated on various aspects of sexuality and reproductive health.

Since the loss of the counselor, the school has struggled to maintain that structure due to the lack of manpower. However, other teachers occasionally step in.

“Our Home Economics teacher, for instance, has been filling the gap, but it’s not the same. Also, lack of proper sex education is one of the reasons schoolgirls fall pregnant and drop out. When they are not taught early or comprehensively, they fall into avoidable traps,” the teacher said.

Consequences Beyond the Belly
Teenage pregnancy is only one part of the problem. Beneath the surface lies a troubling chain of consequences that stretch far beyond the belly. Girls are not only at risk of dropping out of school but also face sexual exploitation, unsafe abortion, physical abuse, abandonment, and a cycle of poverty that deepens with every missed opportunity.

For Blessing Nathan (name withheld), becoming pregnant and leaving school carried a weight too heavy for her small shoulders. At just 16, her dreams of becoming a nurse was abruptly cut short, triggered by her parents’ separation and the absence of emotional and educational support.

Her former school, Northern Annang Secondary Commercial School (NASCO), did not offer comprehensive sex education. Even when such lessons were taught, they were vaguely delivered, often with technical terms that went over students’ heads. With her mother gone and her father unable to meet her educational needs, Blessing’s vulnerability grew.

“I didn’t know what sex education is. The few times sex education was taught in my school, I didn’t understand what they were teaching us because the terms used were too big for my understanding and I didn’t have anyone to explain or guide me,” Blessing said in her local dialect.

Today, Blessing sells palm oil in her village and sometimes helps on nearby farms with her young baby strapped on her back to earn a meagre income. Tearfully, she recounted how the consequences of falling pregnant had haunted her beyond childbirth.

“Once a girl is pregnant, she’s labelled and abandoned. Since I got pregnant, my self-esteem and dreams have been affected. If I had someone to guide me, maybe I wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

In her community, teenage pregnancy is not unusual. Many girls are mothers before they complete secondary school. But for each girl, the aftermath is different and deeply personal.

For 17-year-old Idorenyin Ime (name withheld), the cost of pregnancy was more than shattered dreams, it was bruises, fear, and shame. After falling pregnant, she moved in with a palm fruit cutter, the supposed father of her child. But rather than a home, what awaited her was violence.

“From four months to after I had the baby, he kept beating me. One day I ran for my life when I could no longer bear the beatings,” she recounted.

Eventually Idorenyin returned to her family, taking refuge with her child and working long hours on farms to make ends meet. The money is barely enough, but she presses on.

“If I had the right education and someone to talk to, I would have protected myself from my baby’s father because he deceived me into believing I will not get pregnant if I sleep with a man the first time. But I was alone and confused when I eventually fell pregnant,” she added tearfully.

For girls like Idorenyin, education could have been a shield but it never came in time. The void left by inadequate sex education and poor parental support continues to widen the gap between survival and dreams.

For elderly women like Mrs Enang, a respected woman who now counsels the young girls like Idorenyin and Blessing, modern day neglect, poverty, lack of good role models is contributing to the rise in teenage pregnancies.

The 56-year-old woman revealed that in her time girls feared falling pregnant due to shame, but now, many of them don’t understand what’s happening to their bodies, she said.

“These girls need people to talk to them. They need support, not shame. If we leave them like this, we are losing a whole generation and this is why I have been counselling them because I want to see them pick up their lives again. I know if there’s an adult school or a system that can ensure they’re re-admitted into school, I’m sure these girls will go back to school,” she added.

Comprehensive Sex Education Must Be a Priority – Experts

To close the existing gaps in sex education, Ambassador Peace Edem of the Youth for Change & Social Development Foundation (YOFCI), a non-governmental organisation has emphasised the urgent need to make comprehensive sex education a policy and funding priority particularly in Akwa Ibom State where vulnerable children are being left behind.

Amb. Peace recommends that comprehensive sex education be fully integrated into the national curriculum. He emphasised the need for it to be age-appropriate, starting from primary school level, to ensure children are adequately informed before reaching adolescence. This, he noted, would equip them with the right knowledge and skills to make informed decisions regarding their sexual and reproductive health.

“As an expert in the NGO space, I strongly believe that sex education is crucial for young children, especially girls, as they reach reproductive age. The absence of comprehensive sex education in schools leaves many of them exposed to myths, and dangerous practices,” Amb. Peace said.

He further stressed the importance of proper funding and resources to support this integration. According to Amb. Peace, schools especially those in rural areas require financial support to access the infrastructure necessary to deliver sex education effectively. Without this investment, the programme risks becoming another underfunded policy on paper.

“Without comprehensive sex education, children particularly girls are left to depend on alternative and unreliable sources such as social media, peers, or unfiltered online platforms.

Also, without funding, it becomes difficult for schools to hire qualified educators, provide training, or even acquire teaching resources,” he added.

For Mrs Udeme Inyang, Gender Equality Advocate and founder of a non-governmental organisation that educates girls on sexual and reproductive health, she believes the conversation on sex education must extend beyond classrooms and curriculum outlines.

“Talking about sex education should be part of our socialisation. It’s healthier and more balanced when parents are encouraged to discuss sex education with their children at home.”

While sex education is currently embedded within Biology classes in Nigerian schools, Mrs Inyang argues that this approach is insufficient to address the full scope of student’s needs. According to her, it should not be viewed solely as an academic subject, but as a life skill that requires family and societal input.

“The major gaps in sex education lie in the foundation, and it’s important to find out what knowledge the family these girls come from have? If families are not contributing to what children learn in school, then those children are left to gather information from potentially harmful sources,” she said.

She stressed the need for synergy between all sectors of society, from the church, homes, and communities, to collectively support healthy sexual development in young people.

“When we allow children to remain vulnerable, we’re giving them room for misinformation. However, sex education is powerful topic, and it must not be ignored. Every one of us is a product of sex, so there should be no shame in addressing it responsibly.”

Mrs Inyang clarified that the goal is not to demystify or demonise sex, but to empower children with accurate knowledge about their bodies and emotions as they grow.

Beyond education, she called on the government to reassess its free education policy and its actual impact on schoolchildren especially girls. According to her, while the policy has increased enrolment, it has also inadvertently contributed to rising parental negligence.

“There’s a need for the government to reflect on the free education policy. It should be more than just sending children to school because their mates are there. Education should be seen as a lifeline, not a routine for age grade.
She urged the government to prioritise not just access, but quality, by providing essentials such as sanitary materials for indigent girls and ensuring that education is free, compulsory, and of good standard.

Why Akwa Ibom Needs a Costed GRESP

A GRESP, is a policy framework that ensure education systems cater to the needs of both boys and girls. It includes clear budgetary provisions, teachers training, and curriculum development tailored to address gender disparity.

In faraway northern states like Kaduna and Sokoto, in a bid to address and reduce school dropout, the government has put in place supporting laws and policies to reduce teenage pregnancy and child marriage.

For instance, Kaduna State has Second Chance Education Programme 2022-2024 targeted at adolescents mothers, whole Sokoto has Female Education Board 2019, Quality Assurance Departments, and agency for female education, and a gender desk officer domiciled at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education. The government went further to strengthen the agency for Mass Education to address issues related to vulnerable groups especially girls.

But in Akwa Ibom, the absence of GRESP and other supporting policies means there’s no funding for sex education programmes, making schools rely on general education budgets which often do not prioritise reproductive health education.

No Dedicated Budget for Sex Education Programme – Government Sources
In 2015, some progress was recorded through the pet project of the then First Lady, Dr (Mrs) Martha Udom Emmanuel. Through the Family Empowerment and Youth Reorientation Programme (FEYReP), pregnancy kits were distributed to teenage mothers and several workshops were organised to target girls, all aimed at reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy in the State.

Nevertheless, experts argue that without a costed GRESP, such interventions remain unsustainable and difficult to measure in terms of impact. A strategic plan that integrates gender-responsive budgeting would ensure continuity, transparency, and targeted support for reproductive health education across the state.

Effort to get an official response from the newly inaugurated Commissioner for Education, Dr Ubong Umoh, proved unsuccessful at the time of filing this report.

Multiple calls and a text message sent to his official number went unanswered. Meanwhile, an officer in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed to TheMail Newspaper that there’s no dedicated budget line for sex education.

She added that the Ministry only organises targeted programmes for girls during international commemorative days such as the International Day of the Girl Child and the Day of the African Child, where secondary school girls are educated on sexual and reproductive health.

Call to Action
The silence surrounding sex education in Akwa Ibom is not merely a cultural issue, it is a policy failure. And girls are paying the price. And girls are paying the price. Until a comprehensive inclusive, and well-implemented sex education policy is adopted, schoolgirls will continue to fall through the cracks, future disrupted by ignorance and preventable mistakes.

Without a costed GRESP, the educational framework in Akwa Ibom leave a glaring gap in addressing the specific needs of female students. Such a plan would not only allocate resources for comprehensive sex education but also ensure that girls receive accurate and timely information about reproductive health, reducing the risks associated with misinformation.

To strengthen the delivery of sex education, there is a pressing need for regular teacher training and capacity-building. Teachers are on the frontline of knowledge dissemination, and their level of preparedness directly impacts the quality of education students receive.

Equipping teachers with the appropriate tools, language, and confidence to deliver lessons on such a sensitive topic is therefore important.

Moreover, the State government must establish a robust monitoring and evaluation framework to track progress, identify gaps, and guide future improvements. For a subject as delicate and significant as sex education, its success hinges on intentional implementation, appropriate language use, and the credibility of those driving the programme.

To achieve measurable results, the Akwa Ibom State government must urgently review and revise its education roadmap, ensuring it is both costed and gender-responsive. The plan must reflect the realities of boys and girls in public schools, particularly those in remote and coastal areas.

Finally, following the example of Kaduna State, Akwa Ibom should consider developing a Second Chance Education Programme for teenage mothers. This initiative would allow young mothers to be reintegrated into the school system, breaking the cycle of poverty and reducing illiteracy rates, especially in remote areas.

*Support for this report was provided by ImpactHouse Centre for Development Communication in partnership with System Strategy and Policy Lab (SSPL).