The Western Cape Education Department believes its efforts to curb teenage pregnancies in the province are working.

On Monday, the department reported that only one matric pupil was reported to be pregnant in the province this year. Last year, 23 girls from one school were reported to be pregnant.

The department said there were a number of factors that contributed to the decline in teenage pregnancies.

The department?s Paddy Attwell said the HIV/AIDS programs run by schools could be one of the contributors to the success.

?Obviously there are a lot of factors and one of them is the HIV/AIDS program, which is encouraging young people to take a more responsible attitude towards sex,? said Attwell.

In contrast, local abortion clinic Marie Stopes reported the rate of pregnancy terminations in the country had increased, especially among teenagers.

The clinic said that between January and October this year they had conducted more than 3 500 terminations on young girls between the ages of 12 and 19.

In the Western Cape alone, 523 abortions were performed this year.

However, it added it was not the only clinic providing the service and that the number was probably higher.

Marie Stopes spokesperson Lailah Abbas said a significant number of terminations had been performed in the past ten months.

?Nationally we have performed a total number of 3587 terminations. The highest is in the age group of 19 years old,? said Abbas.