“Prosecute irresponsible parents”

A Deputy Director of Education, Alhaji Mohammed Haroon has suggested that parents or guardians who fail to send their children to school should be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others.

He said: “It is unfortunate that at this time in our history when government is making several interventions to make education accessible to all, some parents still refuse to educate their children.”

Alhaji Haroon, Deputy Metropolitan Director of Education, made the suggestion at a durbar of chiefs, educationists and NGOs involved in education at Bagliga, a village near Tamale on Thursday, to commemorate "Global Action Week" on education.

Alhaji Haroon said teachers who hailed from the Northern region were reluctant to accept postings to the rural areas and urged them to change their attitude, saying: “Do you expect teachers from the south to come and teach your brothers and sisters?”

Mr. Adam Abdul-Rashid, Programme Officer of Net Organisation for Youth Empowerment and Development (NOYED said the report showed that there is only a one three-classroom primary block in the community serving pupils from Class One to Class Six.
He said enrolment at the beginning of Primary One was usually very encouraging but dwindled as the pupils progressed to the Upper Primary, explaining that parents would begin to withdraw their children from school as they felt they would be more useful to them on the farms.

A report he presented recommended among other things that parents and the community be enlightened on the advantages of education and urged the government to provide a junior secondary school for the community to promote education in the area.

It also recommended that the various stakeholders in education should help to alleviate poverty in the community, which it described as "deprived" as poverty was disabling the people from sending their children to school.

Source: GNA