The ugly side of campus relationships

While enjoying freedom at university and interacting with many people, students are always likely to be in relationships. It has become a norm that students have gone the extra mile joking that being in a relationship at campus is a compulsory unit of its own.

Weighing on the advantages and disadvantages of these young relationships, the naked ugly truth behind them is that most are struggles and sufferings, which affect them academically and change their perception of what is love.

Some and mostly the girl child drop out of school partially due to the negative effects. Within these struggles, what clearly comes out is that they value their relationships rather than the main goal of being at school, education.

Both genders have to suffer for the partnership. Young men play the roles of husbands. They sacrifice a lot to provide for the 'wife.' Financially stable boys gather for food, beauty, leisure, and other expenses in most cases, with a few instances being the vice versa.

At some points of the semester, they go broke, having roles and duties to perform. This drives them to obtain money in all means such as selling properties, e.g., laptops, selling drugs, cheating their parents or guardians, and also obtaining loans that end up being defaulted.

Missing classes to perform household chores and play wife roles is not a shocking thing for students. In some cases, if the 'wife' is a classmate, the lady is expected to leave the class earlier to prepare meals for the 'husband' who stays in class until it ends. The helpless lady trapped in the paws of the relationship is supposed to clean the house, wash and iron clothes, and clean the dishes.

Some girls rent houses but move on to live in their boyfriend's houses while some pay rent together. This usually happens without the consent of most parents or those responsible.

The saddest part is the early and unplanned pregnancies, STIs, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Since the young couple lives together, they engage in unprotected sex regularly. Five out of fifty female students in every class become pregnant, but since they are not ready to take the responsibilities of having babies, they easily go for unsafe abortions. For those who choose otherwise, the lady suspends her studies while the man continues.

To avoid pregnancies, some use contraceptives, but they forget about the contagious STIs and HIV. Students go for contraception pills rather than those that prevent infections because of the fear of managing babies. They, however, come to realize the infections when the conditions worsen.

Do these students have knowledge of sex? Should the government introduce sex education? Who is to be blamed for this? Parental negligence can be attributed to this problem. However, the youths are not always willing to talk to the parents about their sex life. They share with their fellows who sail in the same sinking boat. Let us not ignore that the students are adults since they are above eighteen years. These children are suffering.