MPIGI. A 13-year-old Primary Seven candidate in Mpigi District has given birth to a baby boy during a Mathematics examination in the ongoing Primary Leaving Examinations.

The 13-year-old , from Lubanga Village , Buwama Town Council ,Mpigi District ,realised she was just about to give birth as she sat down to write her Mathematics Paper at St. Balikuddembe Primary School on Tuesday morning.

She was swiftly rushed to a local clinic where within 20 minutes she delivered a baby boy.

Just one hour after leaving the examination room, the pupil  was back at her desk, stunning her family who had rushed to the clinic as well as the invigilators.
Ms Gorreti Nakachwa , a nurse at the clinic, said the girl had a normal delivery and got no complications.

“She was lucky she did not get any complications and both the mother and baby are fine,” She said.

Mr Godfrey Ssemanda  , the school head teacher ,said the student was added 45 extra minutes to enable her  complete the math’s paper.

“After the paper, she was allowed to return to the clinic and attend to the baby. She was able to do her Social Studies paper in the afternoon ,” he said.

The new mother said she was determined to carry on with her papers even if she had been subjected to caesarean section.

“When I received labour pains, I felt like the world was ending, but I was confident that God was with me and I could not miss a single exam , am happy this has come to pass,” the young mother ,said.

The girl’s parents attributed their daughter's pregnancy to last year’s Covid-19 lockdown.

"She was lured into conjugal acts during  this Covid-19 lockdown by a certain boy because they were not going to school," one of the parents said.

Ms Grace Nalubega, the girl’s mother has asked the community and well-wishers to support her financially to take care of both the baby and the young mother because the father of the baby is not yet known. At the start of national exams early this month , the Uganda Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB)  announced that.

Candidates who are pregnant, are nursing or have other special conditions will be allowed an addition 40 or so minutes to complete their papers than their counterparts who do not have such conditions. These changes were  been forced by the lockdown that was necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which school-going children were forced to stay home for almost a year and many of them were exposed to a number of dangers, including getting pregnant.
When schools resumed, first for candidates, the government declared that those children who had gotten pregnant during the lockdown but were keen to continue with school would be allowed to sit for their final examinations.