NGO worried about parental neglect
The Programmes Co-ordinator of the Mission of Hope for Society (MIHOSO), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Mr Thomas Bernakuu, has described lack of proper parental care and child protection in the Kintampo South District as very worrisome, as many parents engaged their children in farming activities at the expense of their education.
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Mr Bernakuu, who is in charge of the Complementary Basic Education programme (CBE), raised the concerns when he addressed the people of Nante, Nante Zongo, Amoma, Pramposo, Mansie, Mo Nkwanta, Agyegyamakunu, Hyireso, Comendar, Chireni and Dumso, all in the district, at separate educational meetings.
The meetings were aimed at educating the people on the CBE programme being implemented by the NGO in the communities.
The CBE is a groundbreaking and accelerated approach that teaches marginalised children how to read and write in their own dialect for them to become numerate in a period of nine months, and targets out-of-school children.
Mr Bernakuu noted with regret that many parents in the communities encouraged their children to go into exploitative work for money to the detriment of their education, stressing that parental neglect affected children's access to basic education.
He explained that MIHOSO, in partnership with World Education Ghana, an NGO, had formed 13 CBE classes and rescued 325 out-of-school children in the district.
“These children are now taught every day by using the CBE methodology,” Mr Bernakuu said, adding that the exercise demonstrated strong retention and completion rates and that about 90 per cent of learners graduated from the classes, and about 70-80 per cent went on to attend primary school.
Mr Bernakuu appealed to the district assembly to enforce the implementation of the Children’s Act (Act 560).
GNA
