About 50 children engaged in child labour near Half Assini

About 50 children of school going age engaged in fishing at the expense of their education at Newtown Wharf near Half Assini, in the Western Region.

Mr. Edward Ackah, Head teacher of Newtown Wharf Primary School disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Tuesday during this year's celebration of Child Labour Day at New Town.

Mr. Ackah said all efforts to enroll the children, mostly from the Central Region, in schools have failed, saying that the children have been contracted by their parents to some fishermen in the community in their fishing business and they do not have any interest in schooling at all.

According to Mr. Ackah, some of the children claim they have been sent to the area by their parents to work for money.

He said the parents of some of the children, when contacted, indicated that they were preparing to enroll their wards in schools but there are no indications that that will be done soon.

Mr. Ackah said he had reported the matter to the authorities but they had not taken any positive action.

The Assemblyman for the area, Mr. Martin Kwasi, who confirmed the story to GNA, said he had on one occasion met the parents of some of the children and pleaded with them to enroll their wards in school but regretted that has yielded no results.

Story by Ghana/GNA