Parents urged to shoulder their responsibilities

Sunyani Dec. 22, GNA - Mr. Issah A. Nasagri, Brong Ahafo Regional Director of National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), on Wednesday urged parents to properly shoulder their responsibilities to their children.

The NCCE director noted that some parents, for lack of space, would allow their children to sleep with friends, which was a contributory factor to teenage pregnancy.

“Children in their teens who move from their parents’ home to sleep with friends rather end up sleeping in another man’s room,” he added.

He was speaking at a regional multi–sectoral child protection committee meeting in Sunyani at which the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) presented its report for the first three-quarters of the year.

The meeting brought together stakeholders from child-related institutions to deliberate on issues affecting children and to find lasting solutions to them.

The CHRAJ report indicated that out of 2,520 reported cases recorded, 708 were for non-maintenance, representing 28 per cent of the cases.

Mr. Nasagri called on the Ghana Rent Control to enforce the rent laws, which stipulated that a tenant was to pay only six months' rent advance and afterwards pay monthly.

He said landlords/land ladies were abusing the rent law by collecting as much as four years’ rent advance and increasing the rent on expiry of the advance.

A parent, who was unable to pay rent would choose to stay in an environment that may not favour the proper growth and training of their children, and thereby expose them to danger, he said.

Mr Nasagri said teenage pregnancy was seriously affecting female children’s education as some of them stayed at home to take care of their babies before continuing their education, whilst others just quit schooling.

On high school fees, the Regional Director asked government to resource public institutions to save parents from enrolling their children in private schools where they could hardly afford to pay the fees.