Headmistress advises parents against child neglect

Kumasi, May 19, GNA-Mrs Theodosia Jackson, Headmistress of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Junior Secondary School (JSS) in Kumasi, has advised parents to place the love and concern for their children over and above pecuniary considerations. She said children are a priceless gift from God whose value could not be measured in monetary terms and that the extent of love, concern and responsibility demonstrated to them will surely pay-off.

Mrs Jackson, who was addressing this term's moral counselling session at the school on Thursday, expressed concern about the current emerging trend of parenthood leading to the growing spate of truancy and other social vices, which had engulfed the youth of today. She said the worst offenders were parents seeking greener pastures abroad who left their children with aged grandparents and their own peers who also did little about their care and supervision, leaving them to their own fate.

The headmistress said what made the situation worse was that parents abroad remitted their children at intervals and such monies were only wasted naively in vain escapades with friends, adding, "such lavish spending by children in school is a bad sign for children's social development."

Mrs Jackson cited an instance where some students of the school absented themselves from school for three months without any parents showing up to explain anything to the school authorities, only for the school to be informed that those students always dressed up and left the house for school but stopped at a cyber caf=E9 to browse for pornographic pictures.

Evangelist Morgan, an itinerant evangelist based in Kumasi who re-echoed the need for parental care, called on mothers to check the dresses their children wear since the half-nude costumes worn by ladies on the street is a clear pointer to diminishing moral values in the country.

Dr Kobina Aidoo, Chairman of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), lauded the rare virtues of the headmistress, which had contributed to present status of the school and called for a standing ovation for the exemplary woman.