Whatsapp Platform A Strategy To Mitigate Early Pregnancies Among Zimbabwe Rural Secondary School Learners Duringcovid -19 Era

Abstract

During COVID- 19, in Zimbabwe4 959 teenagers fell pregnant and 1 774 adolescents were married between January and February 2021. I observed that, there are no contemporary studies in Zimbabwe that focuses on the effectiveness of WhatsApp dealing with grade 7 pregnant rural learners’ issues during COVID19 era. The aim of this paper is to explore the effectiveness of WhatsApp platform as a critical tool to mitigate early learners’ pregnancies in Zimbabwean rural secondary schools during COVID-19 era. Ubuntu / Unhu theoretical framework couched this article. Interpretivism paradigm and a case study were used in this article. Purposive sampling technique was utilized to select fifteen participants and data from focus group were analysed through Thematic Analysis. The paper found that, WhatsApp message is effective in mitigating early pregnancies among adolescent learners in rural schools. It recommended that, internet service providers should charge lower WhatsApp data costs to help disadvantaged rural learners to access to internet. Consequently, there will be few or no early pregnancies among rural female learners in rural schools.

Keywords: WhatsApp; COVID-19; epidemic; learning; early pregnancies; Zimbabwe