FACT CHECK: Pregnancy test not required for junior, senior high school students

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The Department of Education has not issued any policy or directive requiring pregnancy tests for students, contrary to the claim

Claim: The Department of Education (DepEd) requires junior high school and senior high school students to undergo pregnancy tests monthly.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The Facebook post bearing the claim has gained 176 shares, four comments, and five reactions, as of writing.

The post uses the official seal of DepEd. The text on the social media card reads: “All female students from Junior High School to Senior High School (Grade 7 to Grade 12) required to take pregnancy tests monthly according to the new DepEd memo.”

It also provides a link to the purported memo. The post further insinuates that the new policy was implemented because of teenage pregnancy.

The facts: DepEd has not issued any policy or directive requiring pregnancy tests for students.

The announcement is fake and did not come from the education department. The link to the supposed memorandum cited in the post leads to a shopping website, not an official DepEd page.

Rappler recently debunked another post from the same Facebook page claiming that all senior high school and college students will be required to undergo drug tests.

These misleading posts began circulating shortly after the start of the new school year.

Pregnancy tests: In 2018, a college in Baguio required students to take pregnancy tests as a condition for enrollment. The policy was widely condemned by women’s and human rights groups for violating the Magna Carta of Women, which prohibits all forms of discrimination against women.

At the time, Gabriela Women’s Party List said the school’s policy “perpetuates an old view and stigma that pregnancy is socially unacceptable and against the norm.”

Previous fact-checks: Rappler has debunked several false posts with fake links attributed to DepEd: 

• FACT CHECK: DepEd still offers Kindergarten, Grade 11
• FACT CHECK: No Grade 13 for school year 2025-2026
• FACT CHECK: Post on DepEd student cash assistance is fake 
• FACT CHECK: K to 12 program not abolished 
• FACT CHECK: Registration links for education cash aid lead to shopping sites 

– James Patrick Cruz/Rappler.com