Birth registration to be a requirement for school admission

The Birth and Death Registry is having discussions with the Ghana Education Service and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to make birth registration a requirement for school admission as well as access to health insurance.  

The Principal Assistant Registrar of the Births and Death Registry, Mr Kingsley Asare Addo, who disclosed this in an interview, explained that the move to link birth registration with those essential services was aimed at stimulating interest in the registration of children at birth.

He said the registry wanted all children in the country to have an identity and that was what the birth certificate guaranteed.

He expressed the hope that with time, no matter where children were born, they would have access to free birth registration that would establish their identities and also fulfil their basic rights as citizens of this country.

“When this is achieved, information about children will be readily available and planning authorities can factor their existence into the provision of essential services,” he added.

On the pilot mobile registration exercise, Mr Asare Addo said through the exercise, children who were staying in unaccessible areas had been registered.

He, however, said they discovered during the exercise that a great number of children had crossed the threshold for free registration and as such could not be captured under the exercise.

By Augustina Tawiah/Junior Graphic/Ghana