Prosecute parents for failure to send children to school - Director

Bagliga (N/R), April 27, GNA - A Deputy Director of Education 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 Mohammed 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.

The Bagliga event was on the theme: "Education as a Human Rights: The case of dark spots in the Northern Region".

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), an NGO, presented a report on: "Evidence gathering at the dark spot" on a study conducted at Bagliga.

He 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.

The report also indicated that 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.

The report 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.