Melbourne: Keep your virginity and get awarded is the new scheme under which a South African mayor has awarded scholarships to 16 young females for remaining virgin till completing their studies.

The scholarship has been introduced this year to encourage others to be ‘pure and focus on school’ and has been awarded to young women from KwaZulu-Natal province.

The young women, who applied for the scholarships voluntarily, stayed virgins and agreed to have regular virginity tests to keep their funding, Uthukela Mayor Dudu Mazibuko said.

The department of basic education recorded about 20,000 pregnancies among girls and young women in schools in 2014, with 223 pregnant girls still in primary school, according to the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Though some activists have called for a ban on virginity testing, the mayor said that it is constitutional if tested with consent.